2016/12/20 by Michäel Dougoud, Dougoud, Michael, Laura Vinckenbosch +7
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #FOS: Biological sciences #Plant and animal studies #Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1612.06735
openalex publication_date 2016/12/20 · openalex created_date 2022/10/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The consensus that complexity begets stability in ecosystems was challenged\nin the seventies, a result recently extended to ecologically-inspired networks.\nThe approaches assume the existence of a feasible equilibrium, i.e. with\npositive abundances. However, this key assumption has not been tested. We\nprovide analytical results complemented by simulations which show that\nequilibrium feasibility vanishes in species rich systems. This result leaves us\nin the uncomfortable situation in which the existence of a feasible equilibrium\nassumed in local stability criteria is far from granted. We extend our analyses\nby changing interaction structure and intensity, and find that feasibility and\nstability is warranted irrespective of species richness with weak interactions.\nInterestingly, we find that the dynamical behaviour of ecologically inspired\narchitectures is very different and richer than that of unstructured systems.\nOur results suggest that a general understanding of ecosystem dynamics requires\nfocusing on the interplay between interaction strength and network\narchitecture.\n