The dual role of detritus as resource and habitat: integrating non‐trophic processes to ecosystem dynamics

The diversity of ecological interactions, both trophic and non‐trophic, is central to understanding the assembly of communities. However, we have yet to study non‐trophic processes through their action on ecosystem compartments such as detritus involved in both recycling and habitat provisioning. Here, we study a simple ecosystem model where the dual role of detritus as both resource and habitat allows us to define ecosystem engineering from non‐trophic processes that interact with the cycling of matter at the ecosystem level. Our results show how habitat and resource limitations on consumer growth from detritus can affect ecosystem stability. We further predict that non‐trophic processes can stabilize ecosystems via 1) asynchrony between trophic and non‐trophic interactions, 2) weak trophic interactions emerging from non‐trophic feedbacks, and 3) coupling between non‐trophic and recycling processes that control top–down versus bottom–up trophic regulation. Our results show that ecosystem dynamics provide the relevant context to study the interplay between trophic and non‐trophic processes.