P. Villegas

T. Gili

G. Caldarelli

Scale-invariant plant clusters explain the ability for a diverse range of plant species to coexist in ecosystems such as Barra Colorado.

Statistical physics has proved essential to analyze multiagent environments. Motivated by the empirical observation of various nonequilibrium features in Barro Colorado and other ecological systems, we analyze a plant-species abundance model of neutral competition, presenting analytical evidence of scale-invariant plant clusters and nontrivial emergent modular correlations. Such first theoretical confirmation of a scale-invariant region, based on percolation processes, reproduces the key features in natural rainforest ecosystems and can confer the most stable equilibrium for ecosystems with vast biodiversity.

Emergent spatial patterns of coexistence in species-rich plant communities