Microbial Ecosystems: Phase Transitions and the Surprising Vulnerability of Diverse Communities

MIT researchers discovered that microbial ecosystems undergo phase transitions, similar to those in physics, progressing through stable, partially extinct, and wildly fluctuating states. Surprisingly, diverse, fluctuating ecosystems were more susceptible to invasion by new species, contradicting established ecological theory. The study reveals that a higher survival fraction of initial species increases vulnerability to invasion. The Lotka-Volterra model confirmed these results, suggesting this is an emergent property of complex dynamic systems.