Neutral competition boosts cycles and chaos in simulated food webs.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Sanchez P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7353966 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Neutral competition boosts cycles and chaos in simulated food webs.
Rodríguez-Sánchez Pablo P van Nes Egbert H EH Scheffer Marten M
Royal Society open science 20200617 6
Similarity of competitors has been proposed to facilitate coexistence of species because it slows down competitive exclusion, thus making it easier for equalizing mechanisms to maintain diverse communities. On the other hand, previous studies suggest that chaotic ecosystems can have a higher biodiversity. Here, we link these two previously unrelated findings, by analysing the dynamics of food web models. We show that near-neutrality of competition of prey, in the presence of predators, increases ...[more]
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