Quantifying the impact of ecological memory on the dynamics of interacting communities
Fig 4
Stochastic perturbations with commensurate memory effects.
(A) Species growth rates bi vary stochastically through time according to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process (see Table in S1 Table). (B) Dynamical behavior of the system in response to the stochastic perturbation for equal initial species abundances and varying memory level: in addition to slowing down community dynamics, increasing memory limits the overall variation in species abundances, thus enhancing the overall resistance of the system and promoting species coexistence. (C) For some memory strengths, the final state of the system can be sensitive to slight variations in memory, with drastic consequences on community composition.