Collective behaviour can stabilize ecosystems

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Theoretical Ecology
• Behavioral Ecology

Background:

• Collective behaviour, involving social interactions that link individual and group actions, is widespread across taxa and ecosystems.
• While individual and group-level mechanics of collective behaviour are studied, its ecosystem-level implications, particularly in consumer-resource dynamics, remain unclear.
• Cross-scale feedback loops in collective behaviour can offer fitness benefits (e.g., resource exploitation) and costs (e.g., competition).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of collective behaviour, specifically collective movement, in shaping ecological dynamics.
• To determine if collective behaviour can influence consumer-resource cycles and species coexistence.
• To explore how social-ecological feedback from collective movement affects ecosystem stability and biodiversity.

Main Methods:

• Introduction of collective movement into a canonical consumer-resource dynamics model.
• Analysis of emergent social-ecological feedback loops.
• Simulation of unstable ecological scenarios to observe the impact of collective movement.

Main Results:

• Collective movement was shown to attenuate consumer-resource cycles.
• The inclusion of collective movement promoted species coexistence in ecological models.
• Emergent social-ecological feedback mitigated conditions leading to extinction in unstable scenarios.

Conclusions:

• Collective behaviour, exemplified by collective movement, can stabilize ecological dynamics.
• Collective behaviour plays a crucial role in preventing extinctions and maintaining biodiversity.
• Understanding collective behaviour is essential for comprehending ecosystem functioning and resilience.