Equilibrium and surviving species in a large Lotka-Volterra system of differential equations

Equilibria of large random Lotka-Volterra systems with vanishing species: a mathematical approach

Ecosystems with a large number of species are often modelled as Lotka-Volterra dynamical systems built around a large interaction matrix with random part. Under some known conditions, a global equilibrium exists and is unique. In this article, we rigorously study its statistical properties in the large dimensional regime. Such an equilibrium vector is known to be the solution of a so-called Linear Complementarity Problem. We describe its statistical properties by designing an Approximate Message Passing (AMP) algorithm, a technique that has recently aroused an intense research effort in the fields of statistical physics, machine learning, or communication theory. Interaction matrices based on the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble, or following a Wishart distribution are considered. Beyond these models, the AMP approach developed in this article has the potential to describe the statistical properties of equilibria associated to more involved interaction matrix models.

Coexistence of many species under a random competition-colonization trade-off

The competition-colonization (CC) trade-off is a well-studied coexistence mechanism for metacommunities. In this setting, it is believed that the coexistence of all species requires their traits to satisfy restrictive conditions limiting their similarity. To investigate whether diverse metacommunities can assemble in a CC trade-off model, we study their assembly from a probabilistic perspective. From a pool of species with parameters (corresponding to traits) sampled at random, we compute the probability that any number of species coexist and characterize the set of species that emerges through assembly. Remarkably, almost exactly half of the species in a large pool typically coexist, with no saturation as the size of the pool grows, and with little dependence on the underlying distribution of traits. Through a mix of analytical results and simulations, we show that this unlimited niche packing emerges as assembly actively moves communities toward overdispersed configurations in niche space. Our findings also apply to a realistic assembly scenario where species invade one at a time from a fixed regional pool. When diversity arises de novo in the metacommunity, richness still grows without bound, but more slowly. Together, our results suggest that the CC trade-off can support the robust emergence of diverse communities, even when coexistence of the full species pool is exceedingly unlikely.