Provision of essential resources as a persistence strategy in food websuse asterix (*) to get italics

Michael RaatzPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2023

<p style="text-align: justify;">Pairwise interactions in food webs, including those between predator and prey are often modulated by a third species. Such higher-order interactions are important structural components of natural food webs that can increase the stability of communities against perturbations and ensure continued ecosystem functioning. Particularly the flux of rare organic and inorganic compounds that are essential to species in the community can create higher-order interactions. Even though many such compounds exist, their effect on structuring communities is little understood. In this study, I perform invasion analyses on a general food web model that depicts apparent and exploitative competition. Introducing the provision of essential resources by a prey species to either its competitor or its predator as a higher-order interaction, I find that this mechanism can ensure the focal prey’s persistence. Larger dietary essentiality, i.e. a stronger dependence of the predator or the competitor on the essential resource can increase the invasion growth rate of the focal prey to positive values, thus promoting its persistence when it would go extinct for low essentiality. This research shows that essential resources and the higher-order interactions created by them should be considered in community ecology.</p>

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7575588You should fill this box only if you chose 'Codes have been used in this study'. URL must start with http:// or https://

Higher-order interaction, Food webs, Food quality, Coexistence, Invasibility

NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).

Biodiversity, Coexistence, Competition, Ecological stoichiometry, Food webs, Interaction networks, Theoretical ecology

Meike Wittmann meike.wittmann@uni-bielefeld.de, Christian Kost christian.kost@uni-osnabrueck.de, Christopher Klausmeier klausme1@msu.edu, Jean-Christophe POGGIALE suggested: The author took all the comments adequatly into account, I think that this version deserves for publication. No need for them to be recommenders of PCIEcology. Please do not suggest reviewers for whom there might be a conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to review preprints written by close colleagues (with whom they have published in the last four years, with whom they have received joint funding in the last four years, or with whom they are currently writing a manuscript, or submitting a grant proposal), or by family members, friends, or anyone for whom bias might affect the nature of the review - see the code of conduct

2023-02-23 17:48:26

Cédric Gaucherel