2026/07/27 by Nirbhay Patil, Ada Altieri
#q-bio.PE #cond-mat.dis-nn
Large ecosystems balance competition and cooperation, yet standard generalized Lotka--Volterra models make mutualism destabilizing by amplifying disorder and driving unbounded growth. We show that Monod-like saturation resolves this paradox: dynamical mean-field theory and random-matrix analysis reveal a broader stable phase and enhanced survival. Network architecture provides a second control mechanism, but nestedness offers no intrinsic stability advantage. Instead, it is a byproduct of degree distributions with high connectivity necessary for stability.