How biotic interactions structure species' responses to perturbations

Predicting how ecological communities will respond to disturbances is a major challenge in community ecology, especially given the variability in species' responses within the same community.Focusing solely on aggregate responses may obscure extinction risks for certain species due to compensatory effects, emphasizing the need to understand the drivers of the response variability at the species-level.Yet, these drivers remain poorly understood.Here, we reveal that despite the complexity of the network of biotic interactions, species' responses follow a discernible pattern.Specifically, we demonstrate that species whose abundance are most reduced by biotic interactions -which are not always the rarest species -will be those that exhibit the strongest responses to disturbances.This insight enables us to pinpoint sensitive species within communities without requiring precise information about biotic interactions.Our novel approach introduces avenues for future research aimed at identifying sensitive species and elucidating their impacts on entire communities.