Stability of ecosystems enhanced by species-interaction constraints

Pettersson, Susanne; Savage, Van M.; Jacobi, Martin Nilsson

doi:10.1103/physreve.102.062405

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The connected space, on the other hand can stabilise by local oscillations, thus avoiding the irreversible event of an extinction. With real ecosystems more alike the spatial GLV, we can expect ecosystem to be more robust than many models might suggest [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial heterogeneity enhance robustness of large multi-species ecosystems

Pettersson

Jacobi

2021

PLoS Comput Biol

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Understanding ecosystem stability and functioning is a long-standing goal in theoretical ecology, with one of the main tools being dynamical modelling of species abundances. With the help of spatially unresolved (well-mixed) population models and equilibrium dynamics, limits to stability and regions of various ecosystem robustness have been extensively mapped in terms of diversity (number of species), types of interactions, interaction strengths, varying interaction networks (for example plant-pollinator, food-web) and varying structures of these networks. Although many insights have been gained, the impact of spatial extension is not included in this body of knowledge. Recent studies of spatially explicit modelling on the other hand have shown that stability limits can be crossed and diversity increased for systems with spatial heterogeneity in species interactions and/or chaotic dynamics. Here we show that such crossing and diversity increase can appear under less strict conditions. We find that the mere possibility of varying species abundances at different spatial locations make possible the preservation or increase in diversity across previous boundaries thought to mark catastrophic transitions. In addition, we introduce and make explicit a multitude of different dynamics a spatially extended complex system can use to stabilise. This expanded stabilising repertoire of dynamics is largest at intermediate levels of dispersal. Thus we find that spatially extended systems with intermediate dispersal are more robust, in general have higher diversity and can stabilise beyond previous stability boundaries, in contrast to well-mixed systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial heterogeneity enhance robustness of large multi-species ecosystems

Pettersson

Jacobi

2021

PLoS Comput Biol

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“…Lotka-Volterra models with additional terms describing dispersal have been studied in various contexts (e.g. [19][20][21]). Here we forgo common model validation analyses which have been a common focus of previous work and instead use this tried and tested approach to ask applied PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY questions with direct relevance to conservation biology.…”

Section: Model Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community composition exceeds area as a predictor of long-term conservation value

et al. 2023

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Conserving biodiversity often requires deciding which sites to prioritise for protection. Predicting the impact of habitat loss is a major challenge, however, since impacts can be distant from the perturbation in both space and time. Here we study the long-term impacts of habitat loss in a mechanistic metacommunity model. We find that site area is a poor predictor of long-term, regional-scale extinctions following localised perturbation. Knowledge of the compositional distinctness (average between-site Bray-Curtis dissimilarity) of the removed community can markedly improve the prediction of impacts on regional assemblages, even when biotic responses play out at substantial spatial or temporal distance from the initial perturbation. Fitting the model to two empirical datasets, we show that this conclusions holds in the empirically relevant parameter range. Our results robustly demonstrate that site area alone is not sufficient to gauge conservation priorities; analysis of compositional distinctness permits improved prioritisation at low cost.

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“…We briefly consider the interpretation of this condition in ecological terms. Fully characterizing the relationship between P and feasibility is a difficult problem with no simple account despite significant study of the same underlying mathematical relationship in other contexts (Saavedra et al 2017;Serván et al 2018;Saavedra & AlAdwani 2021;Pettersson et al 2020). This condition expresses the fact that P y = 1 must have a positive solution, or in other words, there must be some possible distribution of available patch types such that all species attain equal effective colonization rates (i.e.…”

Section: Coexistence Equilibrium and Feasibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat heterogeneity, environmental feedbacks, and species coexistence across timescales

Miller

Allesina

2022

Preprint

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A large body of ecological theory explains the coexistence of multiple species in variable environments. While spatial variation is often treated as an intrinsic feature of a landscape, it may be shaped and even generated by the resident community. All species modify their local environment to some extent, driving changes that can feed back to affect the composition and coexistence of the community, potentially over timescales very different from population dynamics. We introduce a simple, nested modeling framework that describes species coexistence in heterogeneous environments, as well as the evolution of this heterogeneity over time due to feedbacks from the biotic community. We derive analytical conditions for the coexistence of any number of species in environments with intrinsic heterogeneity or feedbacks, and identify essential differences between these scenarios. Our model is naturally simplified in the limit of very fast or very slow environmental feedbacks, allowing us to treat these two scenarios – which bookend the full range of dynamics – in detail. Among other results, we demonstrate how dispersal and environmental specialization interact to shape realized patterns of habitat association. We also show that environmental feedbacks can tune landscape conditions to promote stable coexistence, although feedbacks can give rise to complex dynamics such as limit cycles, priority effects, and episodic dynamics, as well. Our flexible modeling framework helps explain how and when each of these behaviors arise, and offers a generic mathematical platform for exploring the interplay between species and landscape diversity.

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Stability of ecosystems enhanced by species-interaction constraints

Cited by 12 publications

References 38 publications

Spatial heterogeneity enhance robustness of large multi-species ecosystems

Spatial heterogeneity enhance robustness of large multi-species ecosystems

Community composition exceeds area as a predictor of long-term conservation value

Habitat heterogeneity, environmental feedbacks, and species coexistence across timescales

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