Abstract

Variations in interspecific interactions play an essential role in community structure, and have already been widely demonstrated between pairwise species along a stress gradient. However, little is known about how the responses of multiple species affect interspecific interactions and the coexistence of multiple stressors. Here, we developed a dynamic model considering the tolerance heterogeneity of three species to investigate how interspecific interactions shift across different environmental stressors. We found the alteration of interspecific relationships for multiple species under multiple stressors depends on the tradeoffs between tolerant and competitive abilities to the limiting stress. Stress--intolerant species may be significantly improved by positive feedback effects from two or more neighbors under multiple stressors. There are complementary effects of species' heterogeneous responses under multiple stressors due to environmental feedback from different species, which may enhance interspecific interaction strength and the shift threshold from competition to facilitation.