Axiomatic Ecology: Rules for Building Consistent Ecosystem Models

Non-mechanistic ecosystem models are employed in many ecological studies ranging from purely theoretical to data-driven ones. With such models in mind, we derive fundamental consistency criteria (axioms) from first principles. These particularly cover what we call clone consistency: The outcome does not change if a population is split into two with identical properties. We mathematically prove that, these axioms are fulfilled if and only if the model is based on linear combinations of powers of parameters and abundances. Using this insight, we formulate a framework that allows to quickly assess the consistency of existing models and to build new models. We demonstrate our approach by invalidating a data-based model proposed for polymicrobial urinary-tract infections and developing an alternative. We argue that our framework reveals implicit assumptions and informs the general modelling studies by narrowing the space of possible models or pointing to new forms of models.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  bioRxiv

• Publication date

  2019-08-05

• Fields of study

  Computer Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1101/724898
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• The balance of interaction types determines the assembly and stability of ecological communities

  2019cited by this paper
• Massively parallel screening of synthetic microbial communities

  2019cited by this paper
• Measuring functional dissimilarity among plots: Adapting old methods to new questions

  2019cited by this paper
• Mutualistic networks: moving closer to a predictive theory.

  2019cited by this paper
• Microbial coexistence through chemical-mediated interactions

  2018cited by this paper
• Microbial communities as dynamical systems.

  2018cited by this paper
• Beyond pairwise mechanisms of species coexistence in complex communities

  2017cited by this paper
• Interaction networks, ecological stability, and collective antibiotic tolerance in polymicrobial infections

  2017cited by this paper
• Lotka-Volterra pairwise modeling fails to capture diverse pairwise microbial interactions

  2017cited by this paper
• Trophic interaction modifications: an empirical and theoretical framework

  2017cited by this paper
• Higher-order interactions capture unexplained complexity in diverse communities

  2017cited by this paper
• Higher-order interactions stabilize dynamics in competitive network models

  2017cited by this paper
• Efficiently and easily integrating differential equations with JiTCODE, JiTCDDE, and JiTCSDE

  2017cited by this paper
• Antimicrobial combinations: Bliss independence and Loewe additivity derived from mechanistic multi-hit models

  2016cited by this paper
• The adaptation of generalist predators' diet in a multi-prey context: insights from new functional responses.

  2016cited by this paper
• High-order species interactions shape ecosystem diversity

  2016cited by this paper
• Challenges in microbial ecology: building predictive understanding of community function and dynamics

  2016cited by this paper
• Perspectives in mathematical modelling for microbial ecology

  2016cited by this paper
• Counteraction of antibiotic production and degradation stabilizes microbial communities

  2015cited by this paper
• The ecology of the microbiome: Networks, competition, and stability

  2015cited by this paper
• The stability–complexity relationship at age 40: a random matrix perspective

  2015cited by this paper
• Maximal feeding with active prey-switching: A kill-the-winner functional response and its effect on global diversity and biogeography

  2014cited by this paper
• Deciphering microbial interactions and detecting keystone species with co-occurrence networks

  2014cited by this paper
• Mathematical modeling of primary succession of murine intestinal microbiota

  2013cited by this paper
• A generalized functional response for predators that switch between multiple prey species.

  2013cited by this paper
• Feeding on Multiple Sources: Towards a Universal Parameterization of the Functional Response of a Generalist Predator Allowing for Switching

  2013cited by this paper
• Optimal foraging in marine ecosystem models: selectivity, profitability and switching

  2013cited by this paper
• Rethinking the logistic approach for population dynamics of mutualistic interactions.

  2013cited by this paper
• Identification of 100 fundamental ecological questions

  2013cited by this paper
• Adaptive foraging allows the maintenance of biodiversity of pollination networks

  2013cited by this paper
• Food webs and biodiversity

  2013cited by this paper
• Ecological Populations of Bacteria Act as Socially Cohesive Units of Antibiotic Production and Resistance

  2012cited by this paper
• Measuring diversity: the importance of species similarity.

  2012cited by this paper
• Top-down control of marine phytoplankton diversity in a global ecosystem model

  2012cited by this paper
• Mouse PRDM9 DNA-Binding Specificity Determines Sites of Histone H3 Lysine 4 Trimethylation for Initiation of Meiotic Recombination

  2011cited by this paper
• Stability of Ecological Communities and the Architecture of Mutualistic and Trophic Networks

  2010cited by this paper
• Food web models: a plea for groups.

  2009cited by this paper
• Generalized Models Reveal Stabilizing Factors in Food Webs

  2009cited by this paper
• Network structural properties mediate the stability of mutualistic communities.

  2008cited by this paper
• The structure of food webs with adaptive behaviour

  2007cited by this paper
• Asymmetric Coevolutionary Networks Facilitate Biodiversity Maintenance

  2006cited by this paper
• Biodiversity in model ecosystems, I: coexistence conditions for competing species.

  2005cited by this paper
• Multispecies modelling of some components of the marine community of northern and central Patagonia, Argentina

  2005cited by this paper
• On moment closures for population dynamics in continuous space.

  2004cited by this paper
• Yuccas, yucca moths, and coevolution: A review

  2003cited by this paper
• Analysis of logistic growth models.

  2002cited by this paper
• Antagonistic Interactions among Marine Pelagic Bacteria

  2001cited by this paper
• MAXIMALLY STABLE MODEL ECOSYSTEMS CAN BE HIGHLY CONNECTED

  2000cited by this paper
• The influence of predator--prey population dynamics on the long-term evolution of food web structure.

  2000cited by this paper
• In search of operational trophospecies in a tropical aquatic food web

  1999cited by this paper
• ON LUMPING SPECIES IN FOOD WEBS

  1998cited by this paper
• Nonlinear Food Web Models and Their Responses to Increased Basal Productivity

  1996cited by this paper
• Ratio-Dependent Predation: An Abstraction That Works

  1995cited by this paper
• Logistic Theory of Food Web Dynamics

  1995cited by this paper
• Improving Food Webs

  1993cited by this paper
• On the measurement of biological diversity

  1993cited by this paper
• Trophic links of community food webs.

  1984cited by this paper
• A short elementary proof of the Bishop–Stone–Weierstrass theorem

  1984cited by this paper
• A theory of growth

  1976cited by this paper
• Will a Large Complex System be Stable?

  1972cited by this paper
• Species packing and competitive equilibrium for many species.

  1970cited by this paper
• The Competitive Structure of Communities: An Experimental Approach with Protozoa

  1969cited by this paper
• The Relevance of Logarithmic Models for Population Interaction

  1968cited by this paper
• A generalization of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem.

  1961cited by this paper
• Variations and Fluctuations of the Number of Individuals in Animal Species living together

  1928cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.