Poderoso FC, Fontanari JF. Controlling species richness in spin-glass model ecosystems.
PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2006;
74:051919. [PMID:
17279951 DOI:
10.1103/physreve.74.051919]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2006] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Within the framework of the random replicator model of ecosystems, we use equilibrium statistical mechanics tools to study the effect of manipulating the ecosystem so as to guarantee that a fixed fraction of the surviving species at equilibrium display a predefined set of characters (e.g., characters of economic value). Provided that the intraspecies competition is not too weak, we find that the consequence of such intervention on the ecosystem composition is a significant increase on the number of species that become extinct, and so the impoverishment of the ecosystem.
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