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Higher-Order Interactions Can Promote Coexistence by Rewiring Intransitivities Into Competitive Networks
Zachary Hajian-Forooshani1,2, Ivette Perfecto3, Warren Irizarry3
1German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Ecology Letters
|June 30, 2026
Summary
Higher-order interactions (HOIs) can restructure ecological networks, promoting species coexistence. Temporal variations in these interactions create instability, leading to competitive intransitivity and coexistence in tropical ant communities.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Community Ecology
- Theoretical Ecology
Background:
- Higher-order interactions (HOIs) are theorized to promote species coexistence.
- The ecological mechanisms driving this effect in natural communities are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ecological mechanisms by which HOIs influence coexistence in a tropical ant community.
- To demonstrate how HOIs can restructure competitive networks and link to intransitivity.
Main Methods:
- Integration of natural history and ecological theory.
- Estimation of pairwise competitive interactions using over two years of community data.
- Modeling the impact of a specific HOI (parasitoid of dominant species) on network dynamics.
Main Results:
- Pairwise interactions alone could not replicate observed community dynamics.
- Incorporating an HOI (parasitoid) theoretically reorganized competitive networks to match empirical data.
- Temporal variation in HOIs induced shifts between dominance regimes, with intervening intransitivities promoting coexistence.
Conclusions:
- HOIs can mechanistically link to competitive intransitivity through the rewiring of species interactions.
- This study provides an empirical example of the mechanisms behind HOI-driven coexistence.
- HOIs and intransitivity, often studied separately, are mechanistically linked in community dynamics.
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