Structured interactions as a stabilizing mechanism for competitive ecosystems
How large ecosystems can create and maintain the remarkable biodiversity we see in nature is probably one of the biggest open questions in science, attracting attention from different fields, from Theoretical Ecology to Mathematics and Physics. In this context, modeling the stable coexistence of species competing for limited resources is a particularly challenging task. From a mathematical point of view, coexistence in competitive dynamics can be achieved when dominance among species forms intransitive loops. However, these relationships usually lead to species' relative abundances neutrally cycling without converging to a stable equilibrium. Although in recent years several mechanisms have been proposed, models able to explain species coexistence in competitive communities are still limited. Here we identify locality in the interactions as one of the simplest mechanisms leading to stable species coexistence. We consider a simplified ecosystem where individuals of each species lay on a spatial network and interactions are possible only between nodes within a certain distance. Varying such distance allows to interpolate between local and global competition. Our results demonstrate, within the scope of our model, that species coexist reaching a stable equilibrium when two conditions are met: individuals are embedded in space and can only interact with other individuals within a short distance. On the contrary, when one of these ingredients is missing, large oscillations and neutral cycles emerge.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Similar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
On the stability of competitive ecological communities with pairwise and higher-order interactions
Ecological communities intrigue researchers seeking to explain the emergence of biodiversity observed in nature. This raises a fundamental question. What sustains the stability and coexistence of species within these eco…
Stabilization of macroscopic dynamics by fine-grained disorder in many-species ecosystems
A central feature of complex systems is the relevance and entanglement of different levels of description. For instance, the dynamics of ecosystems can be alternatively described in terms of large ecological processes an…
Innate behavioural mechanisms and defensive traits in ecological models of predator-prey types
There are various examples of phenotypic plasticity in ecosystems that serve as the basis for a wide range of inducible defences against predation. These strategies include camouflage, burrowing, mimicry, evasive actions…
A universal niche geometry governs the response of ecosystems to environmental perturbations
How ecosystems respond to environmental perturbations is a fundamental question in ecology, made especially challenging due to the strong coupling between species and their environment. Here, we introduce a theoretical f…
Data-Driven Structured Policy Iteration for Homogeneous Distributed Systems
Control of networked systems, comprised of interacting agents, is often achieved through modeling the underlying interactions. Constructing accurate models of such interactions--in the meantime--can become prohibitive in…