How collectively integrated are ecological communities?

Yuval R. Zelnik, Nuria Galiana, Matthieu Barbier, Michel Loreau, Eric Galbraith, Jean François Arnoldi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Beyond abiotic conditions, do population dynamics mostly depend on a species' direct predators, preys and conspecifics? Or can indirect feedback that ripples across the whole community be equally important? Determining where ecological communities sit on the spectrum between these two characterizations requires a metric able to capture the difference between them. Here we show that the spectral radius of a community's interaction matrix provides such a metric, thus a measure of ecological collectivity, which is accessible from imperfect knowledge of biotic interactions and related to observable signatures. This measure of collectivity integrates existing approaches to complexity, interaction structure and indirect interactions. Our work thus provides an original perspective on the question of to what degree communities are more than loose collections of species or simple interaction motifs and explains when pragmatic reductionist approaches ought to suffice or fail when applied to ecological communities.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere14358
JournalEcology Letters
Volume27
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2024
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Lotka-Volterra models
  • complexity
  • eigenvalues
  • holism
  • indirect interactions
  • interaction networks
  • interaction structure
  • press perturbations
  • reductionism
  • stability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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