ArticleCommunications biology2021
Detecting alternative attractors in ecosystem dynamics.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed.
- From genes to patterns: five key dynamical systems concepts to decode developmental regulatory mechanisms.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Review
- Revealing unseen dynamical regimes of ecosystems from population time-series data.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Detecting shifts in nonlinear dynamics using Empirical Dynamic Modeling with Nested-Library Analysis.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Usefulness and limitations of convergent cross sorting and continuity scaling methods for their application in simulated and real-world time series.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Detecting alternative attractors in ecosystem dynamics.Communications biology · 2021Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Dynamical systems theory suggests that ecosystems may exhibit alternative dynamical attractors. Such alternative attractors, as for example equilibria and cycles, have been found in the dynamics of experimental systems. Yet, for natural systems, where multiple biotic and abiotic factors simultaneously affect population dynamics, it is more challenging to distinguish alternative dynamical behaviors. Although recent research exemplifies that some natural systems can exhibit alternative states, a robust methodology for testing whether these constitute distinct dynamical attractors is currently lacking. Here, using attractor reconstruction techniques we develop such a test. Applications of the methodology to simulated, experimental and natural time series data, reveal that alternative dynamical behaviors are hard to distinguish if population dynamics are governed by purely stochastic processes. However, if population dynamics are brought about also by mechanisms internal to the system, alternative attractors can readily be detected. Since many natural populations display evidence of such internally driven dynamics, our approach offers a method for empirically testing whether ecosystems exhibit alternative dynamical attractors.
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