Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Theoretical ecology

Coexistence holes fill a gap in community assembly theory

The mathematics of counting holes reveals hidden paths to species coexistence and the obstacles that block the way.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Purchase on Springer Link

Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Alternative assembly hypergraphs, constructed from a collection of four species, and their corresponding Betti numbers.

References

  1. Gamow, G. Biography of Physics (Harper, 1961).

  2. Cang, Z., Mu, L. & Wei, G.-W. PLoS Comput. Biol. 14, e1005929 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Reimann, M. W. et al. Front. Comput. Neurosci. 11, 48 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Angulo, M. T., Kelley, A., Montejano, L., Song, C. & Saavedra, S. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01462-8 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Ghrist, R. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 45, 61–75 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chesson, P. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 31, 343–366 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Friedman, J., Higgins, L. M. & Gore, J. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 1, 0109 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Grilli, J., Barabás, G., Michalska-Smith, M. J. & Allesina, S. Nature 548, 210–213 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Grainger, T. N., Levine, J. M. & Gilbert, B. Trends Ecol. Evol. 34, 925–935 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gould, A. L. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, E11951–E11960 (2018).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Letten, A. D. & Stouffer, D. B. Ecol. Lett. 22, 423–436 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Fukami, T. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 46, 1–23 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew D. Letten.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Letten, A.D. Coexistence holes fill a gap in community assembly theory. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 1062–1063 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01461-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01461-9

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing