Diverse interactions and ecosystem engineering can stabilize community assembly

Author(s)

Yeakel, Justin D. ^{[1, 2]} ; Pires, Mathias M. ^[3] ; de Aguiar, Marcus A. M. ^[3] ; O'Donnell, James L. ^[4] ; Guimaraes, Jr., Paulo R. ^[5] ; Gravel, Dominique ^[6] ; Gross, Thilo ^{[7, 8, 9, 10]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Calif Merced, 5200 Lake Rd, Merced, CA 95343 - USA

^[2] Santa Fe Inst, 1399 Hyde Pk Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87501 - USA

^[3] Univ Estadual Campinas, BR-13083970 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[4] Univ Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 - USA

^[5] Univ Sao Paulo, Cidade Univ, Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[6] Univ Sherbrooke, 2500 Blvd Univ, Sherbrooke, PQ J1K 2R1 - Canada

^[7] Univ Calif Davis, Davis, CA 95616 - USA

^[8] Univ Oldenburg HIFMB, Helmholtz Inst Funct Marine Biodivers, Ammerlander Heerstr 231, D-26129 Oldenburg - Germany

^[9] Helmholtz Zentrum Polar & Meeresforsch, Alfred Wegener Inst, Oldenburg - Germany

^[10] Carl von Ossietzky Univ Oldenburg, ICBM, D-26129 Oldenburg - Germany

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS; v. 11, n. 1 JUL 3 2020.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

The complexity of an ecological community can be distilled into a network, where diverse interactions connect species in a web of dependencies. Species interact directly with each other and indirectly through environmental effects, however to our knowledge the role of these ecosystem engineers has not been considered in ecological network models. Here we explore the dynamics of ecosystem assembly, where species colonization and extinction depends on the constraints imposed by trophic, service, and engineering dependencies. We show that our assembly model reproduces many key features of ecological systems, such as the role of generalists during assembly, realistic maximum trophic levels, and increased nestedness with mutualistic interactions. We find that ecosystem engineering has large and nonlinear effects on extinction rates. While small numbers of engineers reduce stability by increasing primary extinctions, larger numbers of engineers increase stability by reducing primary extinctions and extinction cascade magnitude. Our results suggest that ecological engineers may enhance community diversity while increasing persistence by facilitating colonization and limiting competitive exclusion. The dynamics of ecological communities depends on interactions between species as well as those between species and their environment, however the effects of the latter are poorly understood. Here, Yeakel et al. reveal how species that modify their environment (ecosystem engineers) impact community dynamics and the risk of extinction. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/20271-5 - Evolutionary models in population dynamics
• Grantee: Marcus Aloizio Martinez de Aguiar
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 16/01343-7 - ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research: a regional center for theoretical physics
• Grantee: Nathan Jacob Berkovits
• Support Opportunities: Special Projects
• FAPESP's process: 18/14809-0 - Evolutionary dynamics in ecological networks
• Grantee: Paulo Roberto Guimarães Junior
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants - Phase 2