New perspectives: stability and complex dynamics of food webs via Hamiltonian methods

Abstract

We investigate global stability and dynamics of large ecological networks by classical methods of the dynamical system theory, including Hamiltonian methods, and averaging. Our analysis exploits the network topological structure, namely, existence of strongly connected nodes (hubs) in the networks. We reveal new relations between topology, interaction structure and network dynamics. We describe mechanisms of catastrophic phenomena leading to sharp changes of dynamics and investigate how these phenomena depend on ecological interaction structure. We show that a Hamiltonian structure of interaction leads to stability and large biodiversity.