High-order species interactions shape ecosystem diversity.

ABSTRACT: Classical theory shows that large communities are destabilized by random interactions among species pairs, creating an upper bound on ecosystem diversity. However, species interactions often occur in high-order combinations, whereby the interaction between two species is modulated by one or more other species. Here, by simulating the dynamics of communities with random interactions, we find that the classical relationship between diversity and stability is inverted for high-order interactions. More specifically, while a community becomes more sensitive to pairwise interactions as its number of species increases, its sensitivity to three-way interactions remains unchanged, and its sensitivity to four-way interactions actually decreases. Therefore, while pairwise interactions lead to sensiti

SUBMITTER: Bairey E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4974637 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature