Nature Communications (May 2020)

The stability of mutualism

  • Lewi Stone

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16474-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Mutualism is typically portrayed as a destabilizing process in community ecology. Here, via a random matrix model that considers species density, the author shows that mutualistic interactions can, in fact, enhance population density at equilibrium and increase community resilience to perturbation.