Energy flow controls the stability of multitrophic ecosystems with stratified nonreciprocity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that energy flow direction and the position of nonreciprocal interactions in trophic networks critically influence ecosystem stability, revealing that energy transfer efficiency can enhance stability.

Contribution

It introduces a model showing how stratified nonreciprocity affects ecosystem stability and highlights the role of energy flow in controlling this stability boundary.

Findings

Nonreciprocal predator-consumer interactions destabilize ecosystems more than resource-consumer interactions.

Energy flow direction controls the stability boundary of the ecosystem.

Reducing energy transfer efficiency expands the stable region, potentially explaining natural energy transfer ratios.

Abstract

Complex systems with nonreciprocal interactions are often stratified into layers. Ecosystems are a prime example, where species at one trophic level grow by consuming those at another. Yet the dynamical consequences of such stratified nonreciprocity -- where the correlation between growth and consumption differs across trophic levels -- remain unexplored. Here, using an ecological model with three trophic levels, we reveal an emergent asymmetry: nonreciprocal interactions between consumers and predators (top and middle level) destabilize ecosystems far more readily than nonreciprocity between consumers and resources (middle and bottom level). We analytically derive the phase diagram for the model and show that its stability boundary is controlled by energy flow across trophic levels. Because energy flows upward -- from resources to predators -- diversity is progressively lower at higher trophic levels, which we show explains the asymmetry. Lowering energy flow efficiency flips the asymmetry toward resources and remarkably expands the stable region of the phase diagram, suggesting that the famous "10% energy transfer" seen in natural ecosystems might promote stability. More broadly, our findings show that the location of nonreciprocity within a complex network, not merely its magnitude, determines stability.