Environmental change makes robust ecological networks fragile

Giovanni Strona () and Kevin D. Lafferty
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Giovanni Strona: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Kevin D. Lafferty: US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center c/o Marine Science Institute, University of California

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Complex ecological networks appear robust to primary extinctions, possibly due to consumers’ tendency to specialize on dependable (available and persistent) resources. However, modifications to the conditions under which the network has evolved might alter resource dependability. Here, we ask whether adaptation to historical conditions can increase community robustness, and whether such robustness can protect communities from collapse when conditions change. Using artificial life simulations, we first evolved digital consumer-resource networks that we subsequently subjected to rapid environmental change. We then investigated how empirical host–parasite networks would respond to historical, random and expected extinction sequences. In both the cases, networks were far more robust to historical conditions than new ones, suggesting that new environmental challenges, as expected under global change, might collapse otherwise robust natural ecosystems.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12462

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12462

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