Beyond the continuum: a multi-dimensional phase space for neutral–niche community assembly

Latombe, Guillaume; Hui, Cang; McGeoch, Mélodie A.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2417

Cited by 23 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…() and extensions of it (e.g., Lasky and Keitt , Latombe et al. ) parameterized in line with dynamics of forest communities. This model was chosen due its simplicity and utility for varying both grain and extent to analyze community assembly outcomes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial scale modulates the inference of metacommunity assembly processes

Viana

Chase

2019

Ecology

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The abundance and distribution of species across the landscape depend on the interaction between local, spatial, and stochastic processes. However, empirical syntheses relating these processes to spatiotemporal patterns of structure in metacommunities remain elusive. One important reason for this lack of synthesis is that the relative importance of the core assembly processes (dispersal, selection, and drift) critically depends on the spatial grain and extent over which communities are studied. To illustrate this, we simulated different aspects of community assembly on heterogeneous landscapes, including the strength of response to environmental heterogeneity (inherent to niche theory) vs. dispersal and stochastic drift (inherent to neutral theory). We show that increasing spatial extent leads to increasing importance of niche selection, whereas increasing spatial grain leads to decreasing importance of niche selection. The strength of these scaling effects depended on environment configuration, dispersal capacity, and niche breadth. By mapping the variation observed from the scaling effects in simulations, we could recreate the entire range of variation observed within and among empirical studies. This means that variation in the relative importance of assembly processes among empirical studies is largely scale dependent and cannot be directly compared. The scaling coefficient of the relative contribution of assembly processes, however, can be interpreted as a scale‐integrative estimate to compare assembly processes across different regions and ecosystems. This emphasizes the necessity to consider spatial scaling as an explicit component of studies intended to infer the importance of community assembly processes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial scale modulates the inference of metacommunity assembly processes

Viana

Chase

2019

Ecology

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“…Niche‐based and neutral processes may result in indistinguishable ecological patterns and may even amplify one another through feedbacks when they act concurrently (Latombe et al. ). As such, we take the position that niche‐theory should not be viewed as an alternative to neutral theory, but rather as an incremental extension of it (Gotelli and McGill ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Latombe et al. ). In highly diverse systems where deterministic differences between individual species are difficult to measure, it is simpler to assume equivalence between species in order to model otherwise intractable problems (Rosindell et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, it is often more practical to make simplifying assumptions to theories so that they no longer depict natural phenomena precisely, but rather approximate several different patterns using few free parameters (Marquet et al 2014). This means that most studies focus primarily on either stochastically neutral models or deterministic models of niche-based differences (but for exceptions, see Gravel et al 2006;Latombe et al 2015). In highly diverse systems where deterministic differences between individual species are difficult to measure, it is simpler to assume equivalence between species in order to model otherwise intractable problems (Rosindell et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adding energy gradients and long‐distance dispersal to a neutral model improves predictions of Madagascan bird diversity

Buschke

Brendonck

Vanschoenwinkel

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Macroecological patterns are likely the result of both stochastically neutral mechanisms and deterministic differences between species. In Madagascar, the simplest stochastically neutral hypothesis – the mid‐domain effects (MDE) hypothesis – has already been rejected. However, rejecting the MDE hypothesis does not necessarily refute the existence of all other neutral mechanisms. Here, we test whether adding complexity to a basic neutral model improves predictions of biodiversity patterns. The simplest MDE model assumes that: (1) species' ranges are continuous and unfragmented, (2) are randomly located throughout the landscape, and (3) can be stacked independently and indefinitely. We designed a simulation based on neutral theory that allowed us to weaken each of these assumptions incrementally by adjusting the habitat capacity as well as the likelihood of short‐ and long‐distance dispersal. Simulated outputs were compared to four empirical patterns of bird diversity: the frequency distributions of species richness and range size, the within‐island latitudinal diversity gradient, and the distance‐decay of species compositional similarity. Neutral models emulated empirical diversity patterns for Madagascan birds accurately. The frequency distribution of range size, latitudinal diversity gradient, and the distance‐decay of species compositional similarity could be attributed to stochastic long‐distance migration events and zero‐sum population dynamics. However, heterogenous environmental gradients improved predictions of the frequency distribution of species richness. Patterns of bird diversity in Madagascar can broadly be attributed to stochastic long‐distance migration events and zero‐sum population dynamics. This implies that rejecting simple hypotheses, such as MDE, does not serve as evidence against stochastic processes in general. However, environmental gradients were necessary to explain patterns of species richness and deterministic differences between species are probably important for explaining the distributions of narrow‐range and endemic species.

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“…Recent progress towards general theory has relied on a 'process-first' approach, which describes the fundamental processes underlying the patterns we observe in nature from first principles (Hubbell 2001, Alonso et al 2006, Harte 2011, Marquet et al 2014, Latombe et al 2015, Vellend 2016. Ecological theories derived from first principles provide us with useful predictions of what the world should look like if only those fundamental processes were at play (Rosindell et al 2012, Marquet et al 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding ecological change across large spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales: integrating data and methods in light of theory

Rapacciuolo

Blois

2019

Ecography

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Ecography E4 awardThe difficulty of integrating multiple theories, data and methods has slowed progress towards making unified inferences of ecological change generalizable across large spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales. However, recent progress towards a theoretical synthesis now provides a guiding framework for organizing and integrating all primary data and methods for spatiotemporal assemblage-level inference in ecology. In this paper, we describe how recent theoretical developments can provide an organizing paradigm for linking advances in data collection and methodological frameworks across disparate ecological sub-disciplines and across large spatial and temporal scales. First, we summarize the set of fundamental processes that determine change in multispecies assemblages across spatial and temporal scales by reviewing recent theoretical syntheses of community ecology. Second, we review recent advances in data and methods across the main sub-disciplines concerned with ecological inference across large spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales, and organize them based on the primary fundamental processes they include, rather than the spatiotemporal scale of their inferences. Finally, we highlight how iteratively focusing on only one fundamental process at a time, but combining all relevant spatiotemporal data and methods, may reduce the conceptual challenges to integration among ecological sub-disciplines. Moreover, we discuss a number of avenues for decreasing the practical barriers to integration among data and methods. We aim to reconcile the recent convergence of decades of thinking in community ecology and macroecology theory with the rapid progress in spatiotemporal approaches for assemblage-level inference, at a time where a robust understanding of spatiotemporal change in ecological assemblages is more crucial than ever to conserve biodiversity.

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Beyond the continuum: a multi-dimensional phase space for neutral–niche community assembly

Cited by 23 publications

References 37 publications

Spatial scale modulates the inference of metacommunity assembly processes

Spatial scale modulates the inference of metacommunity assembly processes

Adding energy gradients and long‐distance dispersal to a neutral model improves predictions of Madagascan bird diversity

Understanding ecological change across large spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales: integrating data and methods in light of theory

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