High-order species interactions shape ecosystem diversity
| Autor: | Roy Kishony, Eyal Bairey, Eric D. Kelsic |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Multidisciplinary Ecology Science media_common.quotation_subject General Physics and Astronomy Biodiversity General Chemistry Biology Theoretical ecology Models Biological Article General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology Obstacle 14. Life underwater Ecosystem diversity High order Ecosystem Diversity (politics) media_common |
| Zdroj: | Nature Communications, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2016) Nature Communications |
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |
| Popis: | Classical theory shows that large communities are destabilized by random interactions among species pairs, creating an upper bound on ecosystem diversity. However, species interactions often occur in high-order combinations, whereby the interaction between two species is modulated by one or more other species. Here, by simulating the dynamics of communities with random interactions, we find that the classical relationship between diversity and stability is inverted for high-order interactions. More specifically, while a community becomes more sensitive to pairwise interactions as its number of species increases, its sensitivity to three-way interactions remains unchanged, and its sensitivity to four-way interactions actually decreases. Therefore, while pairwise interactions lead to sensitivity to the addition of species, four-way interactions lead to sensitivity to species removal, and their combination creates both a lower and an upper bound on the number of species. These findings highlight the importance of high-order species interactions in determining the diversity of natural ecosystems. A major challenge of theoretical ecology is explaining the stable coexistence of diverse multi-species communities. Here, the authors show that when the interactions among two species depend on the presence of other species, the diversity of the community becomes a necessity rather than an obstacle for its stability. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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