Ecosystem transformations in response to environmental fluctuations

Abstract

Ecosystems, which are intricate amalgams of biological communities and their surrounding environments, continually evolve under the influence of their myriad interactions. The world is currently facing intensifying environmental fluctuations. Understanding general trends in ecosystem transformations in response to environmental fluctuations and elucidating the underlying mechanisms are thus critical challenges. In this study, we used a model ecosystem approach to investigate ecosystem alterations caused by escalating environmental fluctuations. We analyzed two distinct models: a stochastic ecosystem model with a spatial structure, and a differential equation model for resource competition. We found that environmental fluctuations tend to shift multi-species coexistence toward the dominance of specific species. We also categorized biological species as specialists or generalists and discovered that which of these groups becomes the dominant species depends on the intensity and frequency of environmental fluctuations. We also determined that a qualitative change in the diversity-stability relationship depends on the period of environmental fluctuations. These results underscore the need to explicitly consider the type of perturbation when discussing ecological transitions and the stability of ecosystems. Our findings advance understanding of the mechanisms underlying how environmental changes reshape ecosystems and offer insights into ecosystem sustainability in the face of future environmental perturbations.