Data from: Weakly interacting species as drivers of ecological stability
Data files
May 14, 2025 version files 399.89 KB
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McClean_ProcB_micro.community.csv
128.43 KB
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McClean_ProcB_submit_bs.growthdata.csv
9.76 KB
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McClean_ProcB_submit_community.plot.data.csv
181 KB
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McClean_ProcB_submit_competition.csv
5.56 KB
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McClean_ProcB_Submit_LRRdata.csv
22.05 KB
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McClean_ProcB_submit_stability.metrics.csv
2.83 KB
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McCleanProcB_submit.R
45.57 KB
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README.md
4.69 KB
Abstract
Determining how individual species can act to moderate the stability of entire ecosystems is a pressing challenge in a world undergoing rapid environmental change. Here, we show that even very weakly interacting species with no discernible effect on ecological dynamics can contribute substantially to ecosystem stability. Further, the nature of this contribution depends on biotic context and both the type and complexity of interspecific interactions in the community. By manipulating multitrophic aquatic microcosm communities experimentally, we found that the contributions of a bacteriophage parasite to overall system stability following a pulse perturbation were variously stabilising, destabilising, and neutral, depending on the presence of competitor or predator species of its bacterial host. This was despite the phage itself having no detectable effect on the biomass or growth rates of its host. Our results demonstrate the pivotal importance of both weak and indirect interactions in moderating the stability of whole ecological networks and have profound implications for our ability to predict the consequences of perturbations on ecosystems.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx70
Description of the data and file structure
Microbial communities were assembled consisting of treatments with varying species combinations (7 replicate communities for 7 ). These communities were assembled in aquatic micorcosms and species densities and population trajectories monitored daily for a period of 10 days. We assessed the contribution of a bacteriophage to four components of community stability in each of our experimental communities (that is, their temporal variability, reactivity, resistance and resilience to a pulse perturbation). We combined this with tests of the direct effects of the bacteriophage on its host’s growth and competitive ability. This experimental framework allowed us to directly assess the relative impacts of direct and indirect species interactions on the wider community dynamics and stability. Paper available form Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences B
Files and variables
File: McClean_ProcB_micro.community.csv
Description:
Variables
- Day: 1- 10 for start of community assembly to end of experiment.
- Microcosm: community ID
- Treatment: Which species combination was present; B is B. subtilis, C= competitor bacteria S. marcescens. P is bacteriophage parasite, Para is predatory paramecium P. caudatum
- Disturbed : Y (pulse disturbance), N (no disturbance)
- trt.phage: present (phage was present), absent (phage absent)
- Species: bacillus (b. subtilis), kleb (klebsiella sp), paramecium (p.caudatum), phage (SPP! bacteriophage), serratia (s. marcescens)
- Density: density of each species
- ld: log10(density)
File: McClean_ProcB_submit_bs.growthdata.csv
Description:
Variables
- well: well ID in a 96 well plate
- MICRO: microcosm (replicate ID)
- media: treatment; B is B. subtilis, C= competitor bacteria S. marcescens. P is bacteriophage parasite, Para is predatory paramecium P. caudatum
- comm: simple (2 species) or comp (>2 species)
- Disturbed: Y (disturbance present) or N (no disturbance)
- factor.phage: treatment
- factor.pred:treatment
- factor.comp:treatment
- phage: presence (Y) or absence (N) of phage
- comp:presence (Y) or absence (N) of competitor bacteria
- predator:presence (Y) or absence (N) of predator
- ancestor: competitor species, predator, and ancestral strain.
- lag time.hrs: lag time
- lag time SE.hrs: lag time SE
- inflection time.hrs : Time at which the growth curve inflects (i.e., max growth acceleration).
- max spec growth rate log od/hr:
- max spec growth rate SE.log/OD.hr:
- max log OD:
File: McClean_ProcB_Submit_LRRdata.csv
Description:
Variables
- Microcosm: replicate ID
- Treatment: B is B. subtilis, C= competitor bacteria S. marcescens. P is bacteriophage parasite, Para is predatory paramecium P. caudatum
- Phage: presence (Y) or absence (N) of phage
- trt: treatment
- Day: experimental day
- meandendis: mean density in disturbed communities
- meandenundis: mean density in undisturbed communities
File: McClean_ProcB_submit_stability.metrics.csv
Description:
Variables
- trt: experimental treatment ( B is B. subtilis, C= competitor bacteria S. marcescens. P is bacteriophage parasite, Para is predatory paramecium P. caudatum)
- phage: presence (Y) or absence (N) of phage
- resistance: metric
- reactivity :metric
- resilience:metric
- trt.tv:metric
- phage.tv:metric
- tv:metric
File: McClean_ProcB_submit_community.plot.data.csv
Description:
Variables
- Day: Experimetnal day
- Microcosm: replicate ID
- Treatment:experimental treatment ( B is B. subtilis, C= competitor bacteria S. marcescens. P is bacteriophage parasite, Para is predatory paramecium P. caudatum)
- trt.phage:: presence (Present) or absence (Absent) of phage
- trt.comp: presence (Present) or absence (Absent) of competitor bacteria
- trt.para:presence (Present) or absence (Absent) of paramecium
- Disturbed : presence (Y) or absence (N) of disturbance
- Species: bacillus (b. subtilis), kleb (klebsiella sp), paramecium (p.caudatum), phage (SPP! bacteriophage), serratia (s. marcescens)
- Density: Population density of the species (in number of cells or colony-forming units).
- ld:log10 Density
File: McCleanProcB_submit.R
Description: code for producing the metric, statistics and figures for the paper McClean et al 2025 Weakly INteracting Species as Drivers of Ecological Stability ProcB
Code/software
Data is all on cv Excel files.
Code is an R script (free software).