Consequences of individual variation and species interaction rewiring on tipping points in ecological networks

• Applicant: Gaurav Baruah, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512287191

Gradual changes in the environment could cause dynamical ecological networks to abruptly shift from one state to an alternative, undesirable state. When this happens ecosystem functions and services provided by ecological systems could get disrupted. One of the fundamental goals of community ecology has thus been to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across space and time. Previous studies on stability and maintenance of ecological systems have mainly focused on the effect of interspecific interactions and species differences, particularly ignoring individual variation that exists within species. Although individual variation has been documented to be ubiquitous in nature, their role in occurrence of abrupt transitions in response to changes in the environment has largely remained unexplored. In conjunction, complex species interactions in such ecological communities are mainly viewed as static in nature. In reality, species form complex interaction networks with others which could dynamically shift over time randomly, or adaptively in response to changes in the external environment. Studies have documented such “interaction rewiring” – that species could shift with whom they interact over time. However, we have a poor understanding of the causes and consequences of such dynamic patterns in networks, and their effect on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in response to changes in the environment. Particularly, as the environment changes over time, individual variation within species could potentially help species to adaptively rewire with others in an ecological network. Such an adaptive rewiring could either stabilize or destabilize ecological networks. Understanding the role of individual variation and species rewiring on stability and feasibility of ecological networks across time and space would be crucial in our understanding of biodiversity patterns across time and in space. Here in this project proposal, I intend to develop a more holistic approach that combines methods from stability, eco-evolutionary dynamics, and dynamical network architecture, for predicting stability and future biodiversity patterns.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position