World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling

Dynamical Implications of Bidirectional Resources Exchange Between Two Ecosystems

High Country Conference Center

It is increasingly recognized that ecosystems are open to the movement organisms, nutrients and detritus and that these fluxes can have substantial consequences for ecosystem structures and functions. In this work, we propose a simple metaecosystem model to explore the dynamical outcomes of bidirectional resource exchange between two, nutrient limited ecosystems. Our model focuses on scenarios in which an ecosystem simultaneously donates and receives a similar, common resource (e.g. leaf litter), which resembles a metaecosystem in which an individual ecosystem compartment acts as both donors and recipients; and exchanges resources (e.g. leaf litter) reciprocally. We perform completed analysis of the proposed model, and our results show the rich dynamical outcomes of the two ecosystems due to resources exchange. For example, depending on the cost and benefit for each ecosystem, it may result in competition exclusion, parasitism, mutualism, and alternative stable states. For each dynamical outcome, we provide related biological implications.