A structural approach for understanding multispecies coexistence

Saavedra, Serguei; Rohr, Rudolf P.; Bascompte, Jordi; Godoy, Óscar; Kraft, Nathan J. B.; Levine, Jonathan M.

doi:10.1002/ecm.1263

Cited by 233 publications

(505 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…This finding is important because many models of community dynamics assume that all interactions between species are purely competitive (e.g. Barabás, Michalska‐Smith, & Allesina, ; Saavedra et al., ). Indeed, no existing trait‐based models of species interactions yield facilitative interactions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Microenvironment and functional‐trait context dependence predict alpine plant community dynamics

et al. 2018

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Predicting the structure and dynamics of communities is difficult. Approaches linking functional traits to niche boundaries, species co‐occurrence and demography are promising, but have so far had limited success. We hypothesized that predictability in community ecology could be improved by incorporating more accurate measures of fine‐scale environmental heterogeneity and the context‐dependent function of traits. We tested these hypotheses using long term whole‐community demography data from an alpine plant community in Colorado. Species distributions along microenvironmental gradients covaried with traits important for below‐ground processes. Positive associations between species distributions across life stages could not be explained by abiotic microenvironment alone, consistent with facilitative processes. Rates of growth, survival, fecundity and recruitment were predicted by the direct and interactive effects of trait, microenvironment, macroenvironment and neighbourhood axes. Synthesis. Context‐dependent interactions between multiple traits and microenvironmental axes are needed to predict fine‐scale community structure and dynamics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Microenvironment and functional‐trait context dependence predict alpine plant community dynamics

et al. 2018

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“…“Modern coexistence theory” was developed by Peter Chesson and others and contains the key insight that species can coexist either by being similar in competitive ability (fitness) or by being different in their niches (Chesson, ). Coexistence theory typically assumes that competitive ability or fitness differences are hierarchical; however, they could also be intransitive and coexistence models can be developed in which species fitness differences are intransitive (Godoy et al., ; Matías, Godoy, Gómez‐Aparicio, & Pérez‐Ramos, ; see also Gallien et al., ; Levine et al., ; Saavedra et al., ).…”

Section: How Does Intransitive Competition Affect Coexistence?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Everything you always wanted to know about intransitive competition but were afraid to ask

Soliveres

Allan

2018

Journal of Ecology

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Over 40 years after the introduction of the concept into ecology, intransitive (i.e. non‐hierarchical) competition remains overlooked by ecological theory, despite theoretical work showing it could be a major driver of species coexistence. This special feature presents six studies, including models, reviews, experimental studies and large‐scale observational studies. Collectively, these studies help to (i) link intransitive competition with short‐ and long‐term coexistence and with other ecological patterns, (ii) evaluate the conditions under which intransitivity is more common and (iii) determine how best to quantify the degree of intransitivity. The studies in this special feature show the generality of intransitive competition in nature, explore interactions between intransitivity and other coexistence mechanisms, and illustrate the effect of environmental conditions (drought, shade, fertility) on intransitivity and coexistence. They also show which metrics best quantify intransitivity and highlight the importance of adopting a more continuous view of competition as varying from strongly transitive to strongly intransitive. The studies also examine relationships between intransitivity and functional diversity and explore the evolution of intransitivity over time. Synthesis. The studies presented here advance the field by integrating intransitive competition into species coexistence and general ecological theory. We also highlight important research gaps that will hopefully inspire the next generation of studies in this topic.

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“…Moreover, these constraints can help us to shift the focus from the structure of species interactions to the structure of the parameter space, which appears to be a necessary step towards a better understanding of species persistence ( Saavedra et al, 2017b ). Overall, we envi-sion that tools like the ones presented in this guideline can open a new and prosperous dialogue for a stronger synthesis of theoretical and empirical work on multi-trophic and changing communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This implies that, given an interaction matrix A , only certain combinations of species-specific intrinsic growth rates can generate feasible equilibria, i.e., for which we have −A −1 · r > 0 . Following this rationale, studies have been systematically investigating the feasibility of ecological communities by looking at the range of parameter values of r as a function of a given interaction matrix A ( Bastolla et al, 2009;Grilli et al, 2017;Logofet, 1993;Rohr et al, 2014;Saavedra et al, 2017b;Vandermeer, 1975 ). Importantly, since environmental conditions can be translated into the vital rates of species ( Coulson et al, 2017;Levins, 1968;Meszéna et al, 2006;Roughgarden, 1975 ), the range of intrinsic growth rates leading to feasibility can represent a set of environmental variations tolerated by the community.…”

Section: Mathematical Definition Of Feasibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A guideline to study the feasibility domain of multi-trophic and changing ecological communities

Song

Rohr

Saavedra

2018

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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155

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The feasibility domain of an ecological community can be described by the set of environmental abiotic and biotic conditions under which all co-occurring and interacting species in a given site and time can have positive abundances. Mathematically, the feasibility domain corresponds to the parameter space compatible with positive (feasible) solutions at equilibrium for all the state variables in a system under a given model of population dynamics. Under specific dynamics, the existence of a feasible equilibrium is a necessary condition for species persistence regardless of whether the feasible equilibrium is dynamically stable or not. Thus, the size of the feasibility domain can also be used as an indicator of the tolerance of a community to random environmental variations. This has motivated a rich research agenda to estimate the feasibility domain of ecological communities. However, these methodologies typically assume that species interactions are static, or that input and output energy flows on each trophic level are unconstrained. Yet, this is different to how communities behave in nature. Here, we present a step-by-step quantitative guideline providing illustrative examples, computational code, and mathematical proofs to study systematically the feasibility domain of ecological communities under changes of interspecific interactions and subject to different constraints on the trophic energy flows. This guideline covers multitrophic communities that can be formed by any type of interspecific interactions. Importantly, we show that the relative size of the feasibility domain can significantly change as a function of the biological information taken into consideration. We believe that the availability of these methods can allow us to increase our understanding about the limits at which ecological communities may no longer tolerate further environmental perturbations, and can facilitate a stronger integration of theoretical and empirical research.

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A structural approach for understanding multispecies coexistence

Abstract: Although observations of species-rich communities have long served as a primary motivation for research on the coexistence of competitors, the majority of our empirical

Cited by 233 publications

References 49 publications

Microenvironment and functional‐trait context dependence predict alpine plant community dynamics

Microenvironment and functional‐trait context dependence predict alpine plant community dynamics

Everything you always wanted to know about intransitive competition but were afraid to ask

A guideline to study the feasibility domain of multi-trophic and changing ecological communities

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