Dynamics of a producer-freeloader ecosystem on the brink of collapse.

ABSTRACT: Ecosystems can undergo sudden shifts to undesirable states, but recent studies with simple single-species ecosystems have demonstrated that advance warning can be provided by the slowing down of population dynamics near a tipping point. However, it is unclear how this 'critical slowing down' will manifest in ecosystems with strong interactions between their components. Here we probe the dynamics of an experimental producer-freeloader ecosystem as it approaches a catastrophic collapse. Surprisingly, the producer population grows in size as the environment deteriorates, highlighting that population size can be a misleading measure of ecosystem stability. By analysing the oscillatory producer-freeloader dynamics for over 100 generations in multiple environmental conditions, we find that the c

SUBMITTER: Chen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4063714 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature