Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Keystone Species01:39

Keystone Species

25.3K
Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...
25.3K
Ecological Disturbance02:26

Ecological Disturbance

21.4K
An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.
21.4K
What is an Ecosystem?01:17

What is an Ecosystem?

48.0K
Overview
48.0K
What is Biodiversity?01:19

What is Biodiversity?

34.6K
Biodiversity describes the variety of living things at multiple organizational levels: genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. Species diversity includes all branches of the evolutionary tree from single-celled prokaryotic organisms, bacteria, and archaea, to the eukaryotic kingdoms: plants; animals; fungi; and protists. To date, there have been about 1.75 million species identified, and new species are discovered every week.
34.6K
Ecological Succession02:17

Ecological Succession

22.0K
Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...
22.0K
Symbiosis00:58

Symbiosis

38.1K
Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...
38.1K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Non-canonical gene amplifications facilitate adaptive evolution in bacteria.

Nature microbiology·2026
Same author

De novo mutations mediate phenotypic switching in an opportunistic human lung pathogen.

Nature communications·2025
Same author

Beta-lactamase dependent and independent evolutionary paths to high-level ampicillin resistance.

Nature communications·2024
Same author

<i>De novo</i> mutations mediate phenotypic switching in an opportunistic human lung pathogen.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2024
Same author

Systematic identification of gene-altering programmed inversions across the bacterial domain.

Nucleic acids research·2023
Same author

Multistep diversification in spatiotemporal bacterial-phage coevolution.

Nature communications·2022

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 17, 2026

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
09:23

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

Published on: March 21, 2025

2.1K

High-order species interactions shape ecosystem diversity.

Eyal Bairey1, Eric D Kelsic2, Roy Kishony2,3

  • 1Department of Physics, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel.

Nature Communications
|August 3, 2016
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

High-order species interactions stabilize ecosystems, unlike classical pairwise interactions. This research shows complex ecological networks can support greater biodiversity by inverting the diversity-stability relationship.

More Related Videos

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
08:16

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

19.5K
Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems
07:41

Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems

Published on: July 30, 2019

8.1K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 17, 2026

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
09:23

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

Published on: March 21, 2025

2.1K
Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
08:16

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

19.5K
Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems
07:41

Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems

Published on: July 30, 2019

8.1K

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Theoretical Ecology
  • Mathematical Biology

Background:

  • Classical ecological theory posits that increased species diversity leads to ecosystem instability due to random pairwise interactions.
  • Species interactions are often more complex, involving higher-order combinations where multiple species influence each other's relationships.
  • Understanding these higher-order interactions is crucial for a complete picture of ecosystem dynamics and diversity limits.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how high-order species interactions affect ecosystem stability and diversity.
  • To challenge the classical understanding of the diversity-stability relationship in ecological communities.
  • To determine the impact of pairwise, three-way, and four-way interactions on community dynamics.

Main Methods:

  • Simulating the population dynamics of ecological communities with random interactions.
  • Analyzing the sensitivity of community stability to different orders of species interactions (pairwise, three-way, four-way).
  • Comparing the outcomes of high-order interactions with classical ecological theory.

Main Results:

  • The study inverts the classical diversity-stability relationship for high-order interactions.
  • Ecosystems become more sensitive to pairwise interactions with increasing species number.
  • Sensitivity to three-way interactions remains constant, while sensitivity to four-way interactions decreases with species number.

Conclusions:

  • High-order interactions, particularly four-way interactions, enhance ecosystem stability and can support higher biodiversity.
  • The interplay between pairwise and high-order interactions establishes both lower and upper bounds for species diversity.
  • These findings underscore the critical role of complex, multi-species interactions in structuring natural ecosystems.