title: The roles of amensalistic and commensalistic interactions in large ecological network stability.
abstract: Ecological communities comprise diverse species and their interactions. Notably, ecological and evolutionary studies have revealed that reciprocal interactions such as predator-prey, competition, and mutualism, are key drivers of community dynamics. However, there is an argument that many species interactions are asymmetric, where one species unilaterally affects another species (amensalism or commensalism). This raises the unanswered question of what is the role of unilateral interactions in community dynamics. Here I use a theoretical approach to demonstrate that unilateral interactions greatly enhance community stability. The results suggested that amensalism and commensalism were more stabilizing than symmetrical interactions, such as competition and mutualism, but they were less stabilizing than an asymmetric antagonistic interaction. A mix of unilateral interactions increased stability. Furthermore, in communities with all interaction types, unilateral interactions tended to increase stability. This study suggests that unilateral interactions play a major role in maintaining communities, underlining the need to further investigate their roles in ecosystem dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, 1060 Nishikawatsu-cho, Matsue 690-8504, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mougi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D058448:Biota; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D020387:Food Chain; D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000502:physiology*