Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Species fluctuations sustained by a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos

Elisa Benincà, Bill Ballantine, Stephen P. Ellner, and Jef Huisman
  1. aDepartment of Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
  2. bLeigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, Warkworth, Northland 0941, New Zealand; and
  3. cEcology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS May 19, 2015 112 (20) 6389-6394; first published April 20, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1421968112
Elisa Benincà
aDepartment of Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Bill Ballantine
bLeigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, Warkworth, Northland 0941, New Zealand; and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Stephen P. Ellner
cEcology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jef Huisman
aDepartment of Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: j.huisman@uva.nl
  1. Edited by Alan Hastings, University of California, Davis, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board March 20, 2015 (received for review November 17, 2014)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

The intuitive and popular idea of a balance of nature has been criticized, because species interactions may generate nonequilibrium dynamics, such as oscillations and chaos. However, field evidence of chaos in ecosystems is rare. We report on a coastal community that has displayed striking fluctuations in the abundances of barnacles, mussels, and algae for more than 20 y. Data analysis reveals that these fluctuations reflect a cyclic succession alternating between stabilizing and chaotic dynamics during the species replacement. These results are supported by a simple patch-occupancy model, which predicts very similar dynamics when exposed to seasonal variation. Our findings provide a field demonstration of nonequilibrium coexistence of competing species through a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos.

Abstract

Although mathematical models and laboratory experiments have shown that species interactions can generate chaos, field evidence of chaos in natural ecosystems is rare. We report on a pristine rocky intertidal community located in one of the world’s oldest marine reserves that has displayed a complex cyclic succession for more than 20 y. Bare rock was colonized by barnacles and crustose algae, they were overgrown by mussels, and the subsequent detachment of the mussels returned bare rock again. These processes generated irregular species fluctuations, such that the species coexisted over many generations without ever approaching a stable equilibrium state. Analysis of the species fluctuations revealed a dominant periodicity of about 2 y, a global Lyapunov exponent statistically indistinguishable from zero, and local Lyapunov exponents that alternated systematically between negative and positive values. This pattern indicates that the community moved back and forth between stabilizing and chaotic dynamics during the cyclic succession. The results are supported by a patch-occupancy model predicting similar patterns when the species interactions were exposed to seasonal variation. Our findings show that natural ecosystems can sustain continued changes in species abundances and that seasonal forcing may push these nonequilibrium dynamics to the edge of chaos.

  • chaos
  • coexistence
  • cyclic succession
  • rock–paper–scissors dynamics
  • rocky intertidal community

Footnotes

  • ↵1Present address: Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, 3720 AB Bilthoven, The Netherlands, and Department of Epidemiology, Crisis Organization and Diagnostics, Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen UR, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands.

  • ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: j.huisman{at}uva.nl.
  • Author contributions: B.B. designed research and collected 20-year dataset; and E.B., S.P.E., and J.H. analyzed data, developed the model, and wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. A.H. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.

  • See Commentary on page 6252.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1421968112/-/DCSupplemental.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Species fluctuations sustained by a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Cyclic succession at the edge of chaos
Elisa Benincà, Bill Ballantine, Stephen P. Ellner, Jef Huisman
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (20) 6389-6394; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1421968112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Cyclic succession at the edge of chaos
Elisa Benincà, Bill Ballantine, Stephen P. Ellner, Jef Huisman
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (20) 6389-6394; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1421968112
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Article Classifications

  • Biological Sciences
  • Ecology

See related content:

  • Nonlinearity and chaos in ecological dynamics
    - May 11, 2015
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 112 (20)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Materials and Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Cave in coastal Kenya with tree growing in the middle.
Journal Club: Small, sharp blades mark shift from Middle to Later Stone Age in coastal Kenya
Archaeologists have long tried to define the transition between the two time periods.
Image credit: Ceri Shipton.
Mouse fibroblast cells. Electron bifurcation reactions keep mammalian cells alive.
Exploring electron bifurcation
Jonathon Yuly, David Beratan, and Peng Zhang investigate how electron bifurcation reactions work.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490