Spatial instabilities untie the exclusion-principle constraint on species coexistence

Nathan, Jonathan; Hardenberg, Jost von; Meron, Ehud

doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2013.06.026

Cited by 23 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…, Baudena and Rietkerk , Nathan et al. ). However, while these studies found coexistence of two species within the same spatial pattern (i.e., overlapping patches), we found that self‐organization effects act both locally and at distance beyond the limits of the facilitator canopy (in the order of a few meters of the river reach in our study).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscapes of facilitation: how self‐organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams

Cornacchia

Koppel

Wal

et al. 2018

Ecology

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Spatial heterogeneity plays a crucial role in the coexistence of species. Despite recognition of the importance of self-organization in creating environmental heterogeneity in otherwise uniform landscapes, the effects of such self-organized pattern formation in promoting coexistence through facilitation are still unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of pattern formation on species interactions and community spatial structure in ecosystems with limited underlying environmental heterogeneity, using self-organized patchiness of the aquatic macrophyte Callitriche platycarpa in streams as a model system. Our theoretical model predicted that pattern formation in aquatic vegetation - due to feedback interactions between plant growth, water flow and sedimentation processes - could promote species coexistence, by creating heterogeneous flow conditions inside and around the plant patches. The spatial plant patterns predicted by our model agreed with field observations at the reach scale in naturally vegetated rivers, where we found a significant spatial aggregation of two macrophyte species around C. platycarpa. Field transplantation experiments showed that C. platycarpa had a positive effect on the growth of both beneficiary species, and the intensity of this facilitative effect was correlated with the heterogeneous hydrodynamic conditions created within and around C. platycarpa patches. Our results emphasize the importance of self-organized patchiness in promoting species coexistence by creating a landscape of facilitation, where new niches and facilitative effects arise in different locations. Understanding the interplay between competition and facilitation is therefore essential for successful management of biodiversity in many ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscapes of facilitation: how self‐organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams

Cornacchia

Koppel

Wal

et al. 2018

Ecology

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“…In this context, this does not refer to intraspecific competition for water, as the ecohydrological dynamics are explicitly modelled. Instead, the strength of intraspecific competition depends on genetic factors, such as the maximum biomass of a single individual, which limit the total biomass a species can reach in a fixed area [22]. Plant mortality is assumed to be proportional to plant density and occurs at rates B 1 and B 2 , respectively.…”

Section: Model Detailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous theoretical work has successfully reproduced such coexistence by assuming that only one plant species induces the formation of spatial patterns [2,22], thus facilitating the growth of a second, non-pattern-forming species. This approach, however, is based on the assumption that the plant species fundamentally differ in their interaction with the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species coexistence in resource-limited patterned ecosystems is facilitated by the interplay of spatial self-organisation and intraspecific competition

Eigentler

2020

Preprint

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The exploration of mechanisms that enable species coexistence under competition for a sole limiting resource is widespread across ecology. One classical example is the coexistence of herbaceous and woody species in self-organised dryland vegetation patterns. Previous theoretical investigations have explained this phenomenon by making strong assumptions on the differences between grasses and trees (e.g. contrasting dispersal behaviours or different functional responses to soil moisture). Motivated by classical theory on Lotka-Volterra competition models, I argue that the interplay between interspecific and intraspecific competition can explain species coexistence without relying on such assumptions. I use an ecohydrological reaction-advection-diffusion system that captures the interactions of two plant species with an explicitly modelled resource to show that coexistence is facilitated by strong intraspecific competition of the species superior in its colonisation abilities, if its competitor's local average fitness is higher. The inclusion of a spatial self-organisation principle yields significant differences from the nonspatial case in which strong intraspecific competition of the locally superior species enables coexistence. Results presented in this paper also capture the empirically observed spatial species distribution in single bands of vegetation and propose differences in plants' dispersal behaviour as its cause.

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“…In order to learn from self-organizing patterns seen in arid lands, their formation and evolution processes must be understood. Evolution by natural selection and niche differentiation in spontaneous vegetation patterns are an alternative explanation for zonation to previous theories focusing on colonization, competition, facilitation and invasion (Baudena and Rietkerk, 2013;Gilad et al, 2007a;Nathan et al, 2013). Plant density-dependent growth rate (Ursino, 2007), the root shoot ratio (Gilad et al, 2007b) and root architecture (Gilad et al, 2007a;Ursino, 2009) discriminate among the hydrological processes, which enable the formation of vegetation patterns (such as infiltration feedback and soil moisture redistribution), mimicking the survival strategy of each species and deserves further exploration.…”

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confidence: 94%

“…The link between species interactions and mixed community spatial self-organization has so far received relatively little attention, compared with local net facilitation of isolated species. Previous theoretical works (Baudena and Rietkerk, 2013;Gilad et al, 2007a;Nathan et al, 2013) focused on competition and facilitation between pattern-forming species and non-colonizer species such as grass and trees. These theoretical studies identified important tenets: (i) differentiation is a necessary condition for population coexistence in a resource-limited ecosystem; (ii) pattern forming grass, influencing soil moisture distribution, could affect tree dynamics and foster coexistence; (iii) competition is mediated by the soil moisture distribution and dispersal outside islands of resource abundance penalizes the faster disperser, and thus, local growth is mediated by colonization rate in environments where homogeneous cover would lead to exclusion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity without complementarity threatens vegetation patterns in arid lands

Ursino

Callegaro

2016

Ecohydrology

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Patterns found in mixed communities including grass, shrubs and trees function as natural water-harvesting systems in arid and\ud semi-arid regions throughout the world. Furthermore, self-organizing vegetation patterns may be indicators of environmental shifts in climate and land use change scenarios. Therefore, net facilitation, leading to resource concentration within vegetation patches, should be imitated and preserved.\ud This study analyses the ecological feedback between niche adaptation of similar band-forming species, and the environment in which species thrive. A minimal model for two coexisting species and the soil moisture balance was formulated to improve our understanding of the effects of species differentiation on the dynamics of plants and resources on single pattern and landscape scales. The model outcomes suggest that pattern-forming-species communities arise as a result of niche differentiation (driven e.g. by evolutionary changes), whereas similar adaptation strategies to cope with harsh conditions may lead to impoverishment of\ud environmental resources and loss of vegetation cover and diversity

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Spatial instabilities untie the exclusion-principle constraint on species coexistence

Cited by 23 publications

References 41 publications

Landscapes of facilitation: how self‐organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams

Landscapes of facilitation: how self‐organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams

Species coexistence in resource-limited patterned ecosystems is facilitated by the interplay of spatial self-organisation and intraspecific competition

Diversity without complementarity threatens vegetation patterns in arid lands

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