ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Models in Ecology and Evolution
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1610137
Dispersal network heterogeneity affect ecosystem stability in rock-paper-scissors tournaments
Provisionally accepted
- 1Key Laboratory of Low Altitude Geographic Information and Air Route of Jiangxi Education Institutes, Jiangxi Flight University, Nanchang, China
- 2Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
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It is a critical issue in ecology to identify mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance.Many theoretical studies have revealed that intransitive competition among species on shared dispersal networks can promote species coexistence, while few attentions are paid to the effect of unshared dispersal networks on ecosystem stability. The classic intransitive competition in an ecological community is the rock-paper-scissors game, where species A excludes B, B out-competes C, and C can displace A. Here, we explore the relationships between dispersal network heterogeneity and rock-paper-scissors dynamics by using a cellular automation model with its underlying species abundances and extinction generation. The ecosystem remains only one species eventually when all species utilize a same dispersal network and extinction generations of the first species is minimum on scale-free network under same condition. On the contrary, fluctuations size of ecological dynamics is negatively correlated with dispersal network heterogeneity on unshared networks.Ecosystem stability is paradox, namely, between shared and unshared networks. Furthermore, dispersal rates of species also show opposite result for the ecosystem stability on shared vs. unshared networks. Therefore, we may represent a potential maintenance mechanism of biodiversity.
Keywords: Intransitive competition, Rock-paper-scissors game, Biodiversity, Network heterogeneity, Species Coexistence, fluctuations size
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guanming Guo, Key Laboratory of Low Altitude Geographic Information and Air Route of Jiangxi Education Institutes, Jiangxi Flight University, Nanchang, China
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