A symmetry-based approach to species-rich ecological communities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a symmetry-based analytical framework for understanding the dynamics of species-rich ecological communities, emphasizing the role of interaction spectra and species extinctions in universal behaviors.

Contribution

It demonstrates that ecological dynamics can be analyzed using rotational symmetry in interactions, independent of specific random ensembles, extending the applicability of disordered systems theory.

Findings

Dynamics depend on the spectrum of the interaction matrix.

Species extinctions increase universality of ecological dynamics.

Framework bridges different interaction models and reveals new behaviors.

Abstract

Disordered systems theory provides powerful tools to analyze the generic behaviors of highdimensional systems, such as species-rich ecological communities or neural networks. By assuming randomness in their interactions, universality ensures that many microscopic details are irrelevant to system-wide dynamics; but the choice of a random ensemble still limits the generality of results. We show here, in the context of ecological dynamics, that these analytical tools do not require a specific choice of ensemble, and that solutions can be found based only on a fundamental rotational symmetry in the interactions, encoding the idea that traits can be recombined into new species without altering global features. Dynamical outcomes then depend on the spectrum of the interaction matrix as a free parameter, allowing us to bridge between results found in different models of interactions, and extend beyond them to previously unidentified behaviors. The distinctive feature of ecological models is the possibility of species extinctions, which leads to an increased universality of dynamics as the fraction of extinct species increases. We expect that these findings can inform new developments in theoretical ecology as well as for other families of complex systems.