2000/05/04 by Viviane M. de Oliveira, José F. Fontanari, J. F. Fontanari · 3 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.4984
7 pages, 4 Postscript figures
arxiv created 2000/05/04 · openalex publication_date 2000/12/04 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We use tools of the equilibrium statistical mechanics of disordered systems to study analytically the statistical properties of an ecosystem composed of N species interacting via random mutual interactions, as well as via deterministic self-interactions of order p>/=2. We show that the main effect of increasing the order of the interactions among the species is to make the system less competitive, in the sense that the fraction of extinct species is greatly reduced. In addition, we find that for p>2 there is a threshold value which gives a lower bound to the concentration of the surviving species, preventing then the existence of rare species and, consequently, increasing the robustness of the ecosystem to external perturbations.