Self-organized spatial patterns are ubiquitous in ecological systems and allow populations to adopt non-trivial spatial distributions starting from disordered configurations. These patterns form due to diverse nonlinear interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment, and lead to the emergence of new (eco)system-level properties unique to self-organized systems. Such pattern consequences include higher resilience and resistance to environmental changes, abrupt ecosystem collapse, hysteresis loops, and reversal of competitive exclusion. Here, we review ecological systems exhibiting self-organized patterns. We establish two broad pattern categories depending on whether the self-organizing process is primarily driven by nonlinear density-dependent demographic rates or by nonlinear density-dependent movement. Using this organization, we examine a wide range of observational scales, from microbial colonies to whole ecosystems, and discuss the mechanisms hypothesized to underlie observed patterns and their system-level consequences. For each example, we review both the empirical evidence and the existing theoretical frameworks developed to identify the causes and consequences of patterning. Finally, we trace qualitative similarities across systems and propose possible ways of developing a more quantitative understanding of how self-organization operates across systems and observational scales in ecology.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/ETLS20210282 | DOI Listing |
Glob Chang Biol
January 2025
Department of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany.
Terrestrial vegetation is a key component of the Earth system, regulating the exchange of carbon, water, and energy between land and atmosphere. Vegetation affects soil moisture dynamics by absorbing and transpiring soil water, thus modulating land-atmosphere interactions. Moreover, changes in vegetation structure (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Plant Sci
January 2025
Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Despite the widely recognized role of pollinators in ecosystem services, we currently have a poor understanding of the contribution of Natural Protected Areas neighboring agricultural landscapes to crop pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions. Here, we conducted monthly surveys over a period of one year to study the diversity of insect visitors in dominant fruit crops-avocado, plum, apple, and blackberry-and used pollen DNA metabarcoding to characterize the community of plant sources in and around low-intensive farmland bordered by protected montane forest in Costa Rica. We found that crops and native plants had distinct communities of flower visitors, suggesting the presence of fine-scale habitat differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Immunol
January 2025
Personalized Diet Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea.
Immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, has yielded remarkable outcomes for some patients with solid cancers, but others do not respond to these treatments. Recent research has identified the gut microbiota as a key modulator of immune responses, suggesting that its composition is closely linked to responses to ICI therapy in cancer treatment. As a result, the gut microbiome is gaining attention as a potential biomarker for predicting individual responses to ICI therapy and as a target for enhancing treatment efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Immunol
January 2025
Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin and Center for Molecular Carcinogenesis and Toxicology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States.
Purpose Of Review: The role of the microbiome in prostate cancer is an emerging subject of research interest. Certain lifestyle factors, such as obesity and diet, can also impact the microbiome, which has been implicated in many diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes. However, this link has yet to be explored in detail in the context of prostate cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld J Gastroenterol
January 2025
Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350004, Fujian Province, China.
In this article, we provide commentary on the recent article by Zhao . We focus on the shifts in the gut microbiota of patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated cirrhosis/portal hypertension (PH) following transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) and the implications for understanding the mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment. By comparing the gut microbiota composition and dynamic changes before and after TIPS in patients with and without hepatic encephalopathy, the authors found an increase in non-probiotic bacteria in those who developed hepatic encephalopathy post-TIPS, with species present only in the hepatic encephalopathy group.
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