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. 2018 Nov 2;8(1):16237.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34716-w.

Spatial compartmentation and food web stability

Akihiko Mougi  1
Affiliations

Spatial compartmentation and food web stability

Akihiko Mougi. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

An important goal in ecology has been to reveal what enables diverse species to be maintained in natural ecosystems. A particular interaction network structure, compartments, divided subsystems with minimal linkage to other subsystems, has been emphasized as a key stabilizer of community dynamics. This concept inherently includes spatiality because communities are physically separated. Nevertheless, few theoretical studies have explicitly focused on such spatial compartmentation. Here using a meta-community model of a food web, I show that compartments have less effect on community stability than previously thought. Instead, less compartmentation of a food web can greatly increase stability, particularly when subsystems are moderately coupled by species migration. Furthermore, compartmentation has a strong destabilization effect in larger systems. The results of the present study suggest that spatial limitation of species interactions rather than of community interactions plays a key role in ecosystem maintenance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of a spatially compartmented food web model. (a–c) Boundary-separated subsystems. (a,d–f) Globally-connected subsystems. As p decreases, the degree of compartmentation increases. When p = 0, subsystems are completely isolated, whereas when p = 1, subsystems are completely merged. Each large circle indicates a patch. Large blue and red circles on the left and right, respectively, are the main habitats of species represented by small blue and red circles. The medium circle is a boundary habitat where two subsystems are locally and partially merged by interactions between species migrating from each main habitat. Small blue and red filled circles in each patch indicate local populations of migratory species in different main habitats, whereas open circles of different colors indicate those of non-migratory species. Arrows between patches indicate the degree of species migration. For example, spatial coupling strength in (d) is smaller than that in (e).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relationships between spatial coupling strength and stability with varying proportions of migratory species. (a,b) I assumed N = 50. (c,d) I assumed N = 200. (a,c) Boundary-separated subsystems. (b,d) Globally-connected subsystems. Colors indicate different levels of p. N = 50 and C = 0.5.
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