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Feasibility and coexistence of large ecological communities

Author

Listed:
  • Jacopo Grilli

    (University of Chicago)

  • Matteo Adorisio

    (International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA))

  • Samir Suweis

    (Università degli Studi di Padova, INFN and CNISM)

  • György Barabás

    (University of Chicago)

  • Jayanth R. Banavar

    (University of Maryland)

  • Stefano Allesina

    (University of Chicago
    Computation Institute, University of Chicago
    Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University)

  • Amos Maritan

    (Università degli Studi di Padova, INFN and CNISM)

Abstract

The role of species interactions in controlling the interplay between the stability of ecosystems and their biodiversity is still not well understood. The ability of ecological communities to recover after small perturbations of the species abundances (local asymptotic stability) has been well studied, whereas the likelihood of a community to persist when the conditions change (structural stability) has received much less attention. Our goal is to understand the effects of diversity, interaction strengths and ecological network structure on the volume of parameter space leading to feasible equilibria. We develop a geometrical framework to study the range of conditions necessary for feasible coexistence. We show that feasibility is determined by few quantities describing the interactions, yielding a nontrivial complexity–feasibility relationship. Analysing more than 100 empirical networks, we show that the range of coexistence conditions in mutualistic systems can be analytically predicted. Finally, we characterize the geometric shape of the feasibility domain, thereby identifying the direction of perturbations that are more likely to cause extinctions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacopo Grilli & Matteo Adorisio & Samir Suweis & György Barabás & Jayanth R. Banavar & Stefano Allesina & Amos Maritan, 2017. "Feasibility and coexistence of large ecological communities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14389
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14389
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    Cited by:

    1. Tu, Chengyi & Luo, Jianhong & Fan, Ying & Pan, Xuwei, 2023. "Dimensionality reduction in stochastic complex dynamical networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    2. Clenet, Maxime & El Ferchichi, Hafedh & Najim, Jamal, 2022. "Equilibrium in a large Lotka–Volterra system with pairwise correlated interactions," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 423-444.
    3. Shiben Zhu & Juken Hong & Teng Wang, 2024. "Horizontal gene transfer is predicted to overcome the diversity limit of competing microbial species," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Ricciardi, Gianmarco & Montagna, Guido & Caldarelli, Guido & Cimini, Giulio, 2023. "Dimensional reduction of solvency contagion dynamics on financial networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 630(C).
    5. AlAdwani, Mohammad & Saavedra, Serguei, 2022. "Feasibility conditions of ecological models: Unfolding links between model parameters," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 466(C).
    6. Wang, Xiangrong & Peron, Thomas & Dubbeldam, Johan L.A. & Kéfi, Sonia & Moreno, Yamir, 2023. "Interspecific competition shapes the structural stability of mutualistic networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).

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