scholarly journals Microbial communities display alternative stable states in a fluctuating environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e1007934
Author(s):  
Clare I. Abreu ◽  
Vilhelm L. Andersen Woltz ◽  
Jonathan Friedman ◽  
Jeff Gore
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Fluctuating Environment

scholarly journals Alternative stable states in a model of microbial community limited by multiple essential nutrients

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Dubinkina ◽  
Yulia Fridman ◽  
Parth Pratim Pandey ◽  
Sergei Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Stable Marriage ◽  
Stable Marriage Problem ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Essential Nutrients ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
The Stable Marriage Problem ◽  
Specialist Species

Microbial communities routinely have several alternative stable states observed for the same environmental parameters. Sudden and irreversible transitions between these states make external manipulation of these systems more complicated. To better understand the mechanisms and origins of multistability in microbial communities, we introduce and study a model of a microbial ecosystem colonized by multiple specialist species selected from a fixed pool. Growth of each species can be limited by essential nutrients of two types, e.g. carbon and nitrogen, each represented in the environment by multiple metabolites. We demonstrate that our model has an exponentially large number of potential stable states realized for different environmental parameters. Using game theoretical methods adapted from the stable marriage problem we predict all of these states based only on ranked lists of competitive abilities of species for each of the nutrients. We show that for every set of nutrient influxes, several mutually uninvadable stable states are generally feasible and we distinguish them based upon their dynamic stability. We further explore an intricate network of discontinuous transitions (regime shifts) between these alternative states both in the course of community assembly, or upon changes of nutrient influxes.

scholarly journals Emergence of alternative stable states in microbial communities in a fluctuating environment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilhelm L. Andersen Woltz ◽  
Clare I. Abreu ◽  
Jonathan Friedman ◽  
Jeff Gore
Keyword(s):  
Dilution Rate ◽  
Competitive Exclusion ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Volterra Model ◽  
Time Averaging ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Fluctuating Environment ◽  
Environmental Fluctuations

AbstractThe effect of environmental fluctuations is a major question in ecology. While it is widely accepted that fluctuations and other types of disturbances can increase biodiversity, we have only a limited understanding of the circumstances in which other types of outcomes can occur in a fluctuating environment. Here we explore this question with laboratory microcosms, using cocultures of two bacterial species, P. putida and P. veronii. At low dilution rates we observe competitive exclusion of P. veronii, whereas at high dilution rates we observe competitive exclusion of P. putida. When the dilution rate alternates between high and low, we do not observe coexistence between the species, but rather alternative stable states, in which only one species survives and initial species’ fractions determine the identity of the surviving species. The Lotka-Volterra model with a fluctuating mortality rate predicts that this outcome is independent of the timing of the fluctuations, and that the time-averaged mortality would also lead to alternative stable states, a prediction that we confirm experimentally. Other pairs of species can coexist in a fluctuating environment, and again consistent with the model we observe coexistence in the time-averaged dilution rate. We find a similar time-averaging result holds in a three-species community, highlighting that simple linear models can in some cases provide powerful insight into how communities will respond to environmental fluctuations.

Fire Feedbacks with Vegetation and Alternative Stable States

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Beckage ◽  
Chris Ellingwood ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Fire Feedbacks

Are systems with strong underlying abiotic regimes more likely to exhibit alternative stable states?

Oikos ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael K. Didham ◽  
Corinne H. Watts ◽  
David A. Norton
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable States

scholarly journals Path-dependent institutions drive alternative stable states in conservation

2018 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 689-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward W. Tekwa ◽  
Eli P. Fenichel ◽  
Simon A. Levin ◽  
Malin L. Pinsky
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Resources ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable State ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Alternative Stable State ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Path Dependent

Understanding why some renewable resources are overharvested while others are conserved remains an important challenge. Most explanations focus on institutional or ecological differences among resources. Here, we provide theoretical and empirical evidence that conservation and overharvest can be alternative stable states within the same exclusive-resource management system because of path-dependent processes, including slow institutional adaptation. Surprisingly, this theory predicts that the alternative states of strong conservation or overharvest are most likely for resources that were previously thought to be easily conserved under optimal management or even open access. Quantitative analyses of harvest rates from 217 intensely managed fisheries supports the predictions. Fisheries’ harvest rates also showed transient dynamics characteristic of path dependence, as well as convergence to the alternative stable state after unexpected transitions. This statistical evidence for path dependence differs from previous empirical support that was based largely on case studies, experiments, and distributional analyses. Alternative stable states in conservation appear likely outcomes for many cooperatively managed renewable resources, which implies that achieving conservation outcomes hinges on harnessing existing policy tools to navigate transitions.

scholarly journals Effects of biological legacies and herbivory on fuels and flammability traits: A long-term experimental study of alternative stable states

2017 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 1309-1322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melisa Blackhall ◽  
Estela Raffaele ◽  
Juan Paritsis ◽  
Florencia Tiribelli ◽  
Juan M. Morales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Biological Legacies

scholarly journals Resilience of Alternative Stable States during the Recovery of Shallow Lakes from Eutrophication: Lake Veluwe as a Case Study

Ecosystems ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas W. Ibelings ◽  
Rob Portielje ◽  
Eddy H. R. R. Lammens ◽  
Ruurd Noordhuis ◽  
Marcel S. van den Berg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Lakes ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable States
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