Continuous limits of large plant-pollinator random networks and some applications

TL;DR

This paper models large plant-pollinator networks using stochastic and deterministic approaches, analyzing their long-term behavior and showing potential community collapse into a single species pair.

Contribution

It introduces a framework connecting stochastic individual-based models with deterministic PDEs for plant-pollinator networks, including complex network structures like nested and modular types.

Findings

Deterministic approximations effectively describe large population dynamics.

Long-term analysis predicts collapse of nested communities to a single species pair.

Central limit theorems quantify differences between stochastic and deterministic models.

Abstract

We study a stochastic individual-based model of interacting plant and pollinator species through a bipartite graph: each species is a node of the graph, an edge representing interactions between a pair of species. The dynamics of the system depends on the between- and within-species interactions: pollination by insects increases plant reproduction rate but has a cost which can increase plant death rate, depending on the densities of pollinators. Pollinators reproduction is increased by the resources harvested on plants. Each species is characterized by a trait corresponding to its degree of generalism. This trait determines the structure of the interaction graph and the quantities of resources exchanged between species. Our model includes in particular nested or modular networks. Deterministic approximations of the stochastic measure-valued process by systems of ordinary differential equations or integro-differential equations are established and studied, when the population is large or when the graph is dense and can be replaced with a graphon. The long-time behaviors of these limits are studied and central limit theorems are established to quantify the difference between the discrete stochastic individual-based model and the deterministic approximations. Finally, studying the continuous limits of the interaction network and the resulting PDEs, we show that nested plant-pollinator communities are expected to collapse towards a coexistence between a single pair of species of plants and pollinators.