Time delays modulate the stability of complex ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: What drives the stability, or instability, of complex ecosystems? This question sits at the heart of community ecology and has motivated a large body of theoretical work exploring how community properties shape ecosystem dynamics. However, the overwhelming majority of current theory assumes that species interactions are instantaneous, meaning that changes in the abundance of one species will lead to immediate changes in the abundances of its partners. In practice, time delays in how species respond to one another are widespread across ecological contexts, yet the impact of these delays on ecosystems remains unclear. Here we derive a new body of theory to comprehensively study the impact of time delays on ecological stability. We find that time delays are important for ecosystem stability.

SUBMITTER: Yang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10555844 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature