Time-varying ecological interactions characterise equilibrium and stability

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Caligiuri, Annalisa, Emery, Emile, Ferreira, Leonardo, García-Castillo, Juan, Lindner, Simon D., Molina-Hernández, Javier, Passos, Nelson Aloysio Reis de Almeida, Ribeiro, Vítor Hugo, Sartore, Marika, Wang, Boxuan, Calleja-Solanas, Violeta
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Caligiuri, Annalisa
Emery, Emile
Ferreira, Leonardo
García-Castillo, Juan
Lindner, Simon D.
Molina-Hernández, Javier
Passos, Nelson Aloysio Reis de Almeida
Ribeiro, Vítor Hugo
Sartore, Marika
Wang, Boxuan
Calleja-Solanas, Violeta
author_facet Caligiuri, Annalisa
Emery, Emile
Ferreira, Leonardo
García-Castillo, Juan
Lindner, Simon D.
Molina-Hernández, Javier
Passos, Nelson Aloysio Reis de Almeida
Ribeiro, Vítor Hugo
Sartore, Marika
Wang, Boxuan
Calleja-Solanas, Violeta
contents Ecological communities are composed of species interactions that respond to environmental fluctuations. Despite increasing evidence of temporal variation in these interactions, most theoretical frameworks remain rooted in static assumptions. Here, we develop and apply a time-varying network model to five long-term ecological datasets spanning diverse taxa and environments. Using a generalized Lotka-Volterra framework with environmental covariates, we quantify temporal rewiring of interspecific interactions, asymmetry patterns, and structural stability. Our results reveal contrasting dynamics across ecosystems: in datasets with rich temporal resolution, interaction networks exhibit marked rewiring and shifts in cooperation-competition ratios that correlate with environmental stress, consistent, though not always linearly, with the stress-gradient hypothesis. Conversely, in datasets with coarser temporal sampling, networks retain constant interaction sign structure and remain in cooperation-dominated regimes. These findings highlight the importance of temporal resolution and environmental context in shaping ecological coexistence.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_22123
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Time-varying ecological interactions characterise equilibrium and stability
Caligiuri, Annalisa
Emery, Emile
Ferreira, Leonardo
García-Castillo, Juan
Lindner, Simon D.
Molina-Hernández, Javier
Passos, Nelson Aloysio Reis de Almeida
Ribeiro, Vítor Hugo
Sartore, Marika
Wang, Boxuan
Calleja-Solanas, Violeta
Populations and Evolution
Ecological communities are composed of species interactions that respond to environmental fluctuations. Despite increasing evidence of temporal variation in these interactions, most theoretical frameworks remain rooted in static assumptions. Here, we develop and apply a time-varying network model to five long-term ecological datasets spanning diverse taxa and environments. Using a generalized Lotka-Volterra framework with environmental covariates, we quantify temporal rewiring of interspecific interactions, asymmetry patterns, and structural stability. Our results reveal contrasting dynamics across ecosystems: in datasets with rich temporal resolution, interaction networks exhibit marked rewiring and shifts in cooperation-competition ratios that correlate with environmental stress, consistent, though not always linearly, with the stress-gradient hypothesis. Conversely, in datasets with coarser temporal sampling, networks retain constant interaction sign structure and remain in cooperation-dominated regimes. These findings highlight the importance of temporal resolution and environmental context in shaping ecological coexistence.
title Time-varying ecological interactions characterise equilibrium and stability
topic Populations and Evolution
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22123