Coexistence in diverse communities with higher-order interactions.

ABSTRACT: A central assumption in most ecological models is that the interactions in a community operate only between pairs of species. However, two species may interactively affect the growth of a focal species. Although interactions among three or more species, called higher-order interactions, have the potential to modify our theoretical understanding of coexistence, ecologists lack clear expectations for how these interactions shape community structure. Here we analytically predict and numerically confirm how the variability and strength of higher-order interactions affect species coexistence. We found that as higher-order interaction strengths became more variable across species, fewer species could coexist, echoing the behavior of pairwise models. If interspecific higher-order interactions bec

SUBMITTER: Gibbs T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9618036 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature