Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities.
Early ecological theory predicts that complex ecological networks are unstable and are unlikely to persist, despite many empirical studies of such complexity in nature. This inconsistency has fascinated ecologists for decades. To resolve the complexity-stability debate, coupling population dynamics...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-07-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013245 |
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| author | Lin Wang Ting Wang Xiao-Wei Zhang Xiao-Fen Lin Jia Li Jin-Bao Liao Rui-Wu Wang |
| author_facet | Lin Wang Ting Wang Xiao-Wei Zhang Xiao-Fen Lin Jia Li Jin-Bao Liao Rui-Wu Wang |
| author_sort | Lin Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Early ecological theory predicts that complex ecological networks are unstable and are unlikely to persist, despite many empirical studies of such complexity in nature. This inconsistency has fascinated ecologists for decades. To resolve the complexity-stability debate, coupling population dynamics and trait dynamics is considered to be an important way to understand the long-term stability of ecological community assemblages. However, we still do not know how eco-evolutionary feedbacks affect the relationship between complexity and stability in ecologically realistic networks with both antagonistic and mutualistic interactions. Here, we explored an adaptive network model to evaluate how the evolution of foraging preference to determine the relationship between network complexity (i.e., connectance) and stability (i.e., community persistence at steady state) in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities (MEST). Our theoretical results showed: (i) adaptive foraging of the top predator contributes to the stability of mutualism and intermediate intensity of foraging adaptations can lead to chaotic dynamics in a four-species MEST community; (ii) the complexity-stability relationship may show positive monotonic, negative monotonic, peaked and double-peaked patterns in general MEST communities, while the double-peaked pattern is only obtained when both the adaptation intensity and interspecific competition are high. Furthermore, model predictions may be consistent with both the negative monotonic pattern revealed in freshwater communities and the peaked pattern revealed in marine communities. Finally, we infer that foraging adaptations of the top predator may alter positive or/and negative feedback loops (trait-mediated indirect effects) to affect the stability of general MEST communities. Our adaptive network framework may provide an effective way to address the complexity-stability debate in real ecosystems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d3549a8db65543c39ded5543c9a26b18 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-d3549a8db65543c39ded5543c9a26b182025-08-20T03:49:56ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582025-07-01217e101324510.1371/journal.pcbi.1013245Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities.Lin WangTing WangXiao-Wei ZhangXiao-Fen LinJia LiJin-Bao LiaoRui-Wu WangEarly ecological theory predicts that complex ecological networks are unstable and are unlikely to persist, despite many empirical studies of such complexity in nature. This inconsistency has fascinated ecologists for decades. To resolve the complexity-stability debate, coupling population dynamics and trait dynamics is considered to be an important way to understand the long-term stability of ecological community assemblages. However, we still do not know how eco-evolutionary feedbacks affect the relationship between complexity and stability in ecologically realistic networks with both antagonistic and mutualistic interactions. Here, we explored an adaptive network model to evaluate how the evolution of foraging preference to determine the relationship between network complexity (i.e., connectance) and stability (i.e., community persistence at steady state) in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities (MEST). Our theoretical results showed: (i) adaptive foraging of the top predator contributes to the stability of mutualism and intermediate intensity of foraging adaptations can lead to chaotic dynamics in a four-species MEST community; (ii) the complexity-stability relationship may show positive monotonic, negative monotonic, peaked and double-peaked patterns in general MEST communities, while the double-peaked pattern is only obtained when both the adaptation intensity and interspecific competition are high. Furthermore, model predictions may be consistent with both the negative monotonic pattern revealed in freshwater communities and the peaked pattern revealed in marine communities. Finally, we infer that foraging adaptations of the top predator may alter positive or/and negative feedback loops (trait-mediated indirect effects) to affect the stability of general MEST communities. Our adaptive network framework may provide an effective way to address the complexity-stability debate in real ecosystems.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013245 |
| spellingShingle | Lin Wang Ting Wang Xiao-Wei Zhang Xiao-Fen Lin Jia Li Jin-Bao Liao Rui-Wu Wang Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities. |
| title_full | Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities. |
| title_fullStr | Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities. |
| title_short | Evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity-stability relationships in mutualist-exploiter-predator communities. |
| title_sort | evolution of foraging behaviour induces variable complexity stability relationships in mutualist exploiter predator communities |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013245 |
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