Reviving collapsed networks from a single species: the importance of trait variation and network architecture

Abstract

Mutualistic ecological networks can suddenly transition to undesirable states, due to small changes in environmental conditions. Recovering from such a collapse can be difficult as reversing the original environmental conditions may be infeasible. Additionally, such networks can also exhibit hysteresis, implying that ecological networks may not recover. Here, using a dynamical eco-evolutionary framework, we try to resurrect mutualistic networks from an undesirable low-functional collapse state to a high-functioning state. We found that restoring the original environmental conditions rarely aided in recovering the original network due to the presence of hysteresis. By combining concepts from signal propagation theory and eco-evolutionary dynamical modeling, we show that network resurrection could be readily achieved by perturbing a single species that controls the response of the dynamical networks. We show that during the resurrection of collapsed networks, the historical network architecture, levels of trait variation, and eco-evolutionary dynamics could aid in the revival of the network even in undesirable environmental conditions. Our study argues that focus should be applied to a few species whose dynamics one could steer to resurrect the entire network from a collapsed state.