Disentangling co-occurrence patterns in n-partite ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper introduces an n-partite hypergraph framework to analyze ecological communities, revealing how nestedness and segregation can coexist in high-dimensional ecosystems beyond traditional two-dimensional models.

Contribution

It extends the concept of nestedness to high-dimensional hypergraphs, providing a new perspective on ecosystem structure and coexistence of patterns.

Findings

Nestedness and segregation can coexist in high-dimensional ecosystems.

Hypergraph representation captures complex ecological arrangements.

High-dimensional analysis reveals mechanisms of competitive exclusion.

Abstract

The need to harmonise apparently irreconcilable arrangements in an ecosystem --nestedness and segregation-- has triggered so far different strategies. Methodological refinements, or the inclusion of behavioural preferences to the network dynamics offer a limited approach to the problem, since one remains constrained within a 2-dimensional view of an ecosystem, i.e. a presence-absence matrix. Here we question this partial-view paradigm, and show that nestedness and segregation may coexist across a varied range of scenarios. To do so, we rely on an upscaled representation of an ecological community as an $n$-partite hypergraph, inspired by Hutchinson's high-dimensional niche concept and the latest trends on ecological multilayer networks. This yields an inclusive description of an ecological system, for which we develop a natural extension of the definition of nestedness to larger dimensional spaces, revealing how competitive exclusion may operate regardless of a highly nested bipartite system.