Structured environments fundamentally alter dynamics and stability of ecological communities

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Microbial Ecology
• Theoretical Ecology

Background:

• Ecological community dynamics are shaped by species interactions and environmental factors.
• Physical anisotropies from fluid flow and chemical gradients influence microbial communities.
• The role of environmental structure in community stability is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of environmental surface structure on microbial community dynamics.
• To characterize how different interaction patterns influence the impact of structure.
• To understand the interplay between physical environment and ecological stability.

Main Methods:

• Modified Lotka-Volterra simulations of competitive microbial communities.
• Modeling the impact of environmental structure on population dynamics.
• Analyzing community behavior under different interaction networks (e.g., competition, intransitive loops).

Main Results:

• Environmental structure can enable coexistence of competing species by pinning interfaces, even with competitive advantages.
• Structural anisotropy disrupts stable coexistence in intransitive (rock-paper-scissors) systems, leading to chaos and extinction cascades.
• The effect of structure is highly dependent on the specific interaction patterns within the community.

Conclusions:

• Microbial community stability is strongly influenced by the physical structure of their environment.
• Understanding environmental structure is crucial for predicting and manipulating microbial community behavior.
• Future ecological studies and interventions must incorporate physical environmental context.