The role of spatial scale in organism–environment positive feedback

Organism–environment positive feedback (i.e., ecosystem self-modification or facilitation) will incur bistability, which is often disadvantageous to biological conservation and ecosystem restoration. Using a spatially correlated equation based on pair approximation and simulation, we found that the feature of bistability in the positive feedback system strongly depends on spatial scale of organism–environment feedback. It will mitigate and even disappear when the interaction between organisms and environment is localized spatially, while the population will lessen globally when dispersal colonization is limited. As the spatially local influence is a basic property of real ecological systems (especially for sessile organisms), but classical ecological models based on mean-field assumption (or mass action) does not consider the impact of spatial scale. This implies that spatial configuration and local facilitation could be essential process for the stability and maintenance of ecosystem.

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