The effect of habitats and fitness on species coexistence in systems with cyclic dominance

TL;DR

This study explores how structured habitats and species fitness influence the stability of species coexistence in systems with cyclic dominance, revealing that habitat heterogeneity can destabilize spiral waves and induce extinction dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed numerical analysis of how structured spatial heterogeneity impacts species coexistence and spiral wave stability in cyclic dominance models.

Findings

Structured habitats destabilize spiral waves.

Extinction probabilities show periodic maxima.

Transition from stable to unstable coexistence depends on advantage parameters.

Abstract

Cyclic dominance between species may yield spiral waves that are known to provide a mechanism enabling persistent species coexistence. This observation holds true even in presence of spatial heterogeneity in the form of quenched disorder. In this work we study the effects on spatio-temporal patterns and species coexistence of structured spatial heterogeneity in the form of habitats that locally provide one of the species with an advantage. Performing extensive numerical simulations of systems with three and six species we show that these structured habitats destabilize spiral waves. Analyzing extinction events, we find that species extinction probabilities display a succession of maxima as function of time, that indicate a periodically enhanced probability for species extinction. Analysis of the mean extinction time reveals that as a function of the parameter governing the advantage of one of the species a transition between stable coexistence and unstable coexistence takes place. We also investigate how efficiency as a predator or a prey affects species coexistence.