Master Stability Functions for metacommunities with two types of habitats

TL;DR

This paper extends the Master Stability Function formalism to analyze the stability of ecological metacommunities with two habitat types on inhomogeneous networks, revealing conditions where dispersal stabilizes or destabilizes dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel extension of the Master Stability Function to inhomogeneous biregular networks with two habitat types, combining it with Generalized Modelling for stability analysis.

Findings

Dispersal can stabilize metacommunity dynamics under certain conditions.

Maladaptive dispersal may be stable in some ecological scenarios.

Analytical and numerical methods provide insights into stabilizing effects.

Abstract

Current questions in ecology revolve around instabilities in the dynamics on spatial networks and particularly the effect of node heterogeneity. We extend the Master Stability Function formalism to inhomogeneous biregular networks having two types of spatial nodes. Notably, this class of systems also allows the investigation of certain types of dynamics on higher-order networks. Combined with the Generalized Modelling approach to study the linear stability of steady states, this is a powerful tool to numerically asses the stability of large ensembles of systems. We analyze the stability of ecological metacommunities with two distinct types of habitats analytically and numerically in order to identify several sets of conditions under which the dynamics can become stabilized by dispersal. Our analytical approach allows general insights into stabilizing and destabilizing effects in metapopulations. Specifically, we show that maladaptive dispersal may be stable under certain conditions.