Emergent phases of ecological diversity and dynamics mapped in microcosms

From tropical forests to gut microbiomes, ecological communities host notably high numbers of coexisting species. Beyond high biodiversity, communities exhibit a range of complex dynamics that are difficult to explain under a unified framework. Using bacterial microcosms, we performed a direct test of theory predicting that simple community-level features dictate emergent behaviors of communities. As either the number of species or the strength of interactions increases, we show that microbial ecosystems transition between three distinct dynamical phases, from a stable equilibrium in which all species coexist to partial coexistence to emergence of persistent fluctuations in species abundances, in the order predicted by theory. Under fixed conditions, high biodiversity and fluctuations reinforce each other. Our results demonstrate predictable emergent patterns of diversity and dynamics in ecological communities.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hu, Jiliang, Amor, Daniel R., Barbier, Matthieu, Bunin, Guy, Gore, Jeff
Format: article biblioteca
Language:eng
Subjects:biodiversité, forêt tropicale, écologie, écologie forestière, dynamique des populations, technique de prévision, écosystème, cartographie, hôte, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_33949, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24904, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2467, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3044, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6111, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3041, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2482, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1344, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3673, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3081,
Online Access:http://agritrop.cirad.fr/606393/
http://agritrop.cirad.fr/606393/1/ID606393.pdf
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