The importance of niche differentiation for coexistence on large scales

Tang, Junfeng; Zhou, Shurong

doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.12.025

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Many other empirical and theoretical studies of various so-called coexistence mechanisms understand exceptions to the CEP as apparent, not genuine (Gilbert et al 1952;Utida 1953;Slobodkin 1964;Amarasekare 2007;Tang & Zhou 2011). We suggest that these coexistence mechanisms are of two kinds: intervening and constitutive.…”

Section: The Cep As a Strict Lawmentioning

confidence: 66%

Exclusions, Explanations, and Exceptions: On the Causal and Lawlike Status of the Competitive Exclusion Principle

Raerinne¹,

Baedke

2015

Philosophy and Theory in Biology

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The lawlike and explanatory status of ecologists' Competitive Exclusion Principle (CEP) is a debated topic. It has been argued that the CEP is a ceteris paribus law, a non-lawlike regularity riddled with exceptions, a tautology, a causal regularity, and so on. We argue that the CEP is an empirically respectful and testable strict law that is not riddled with genuine exceptions. Moreover, we argue that the CEP is not a causal explanans in explanations, because it is a coexistence law, not a causal law. Rather than being an explanans, the CEP acts as a contrastive principle sharpening causal explanations. These results contrast with previous analyses of the CEP by Eliot (2011) andWeber (1999), which are also discussed. As a more general conclusion, we suggest that accounts of causal explanation in biology have neglected some of the roles that non-causal laws play in restricting, sharpening, and facilitating causal explanations.

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Section: The Cep As a Strict Lawmentioning

confidence: 66%

Exclusions, Explanations, and Exceptions: On the Causal and Lawlike Status of the Competitive Exclusion Principle

Raerinne¹,

Baedke

2015

Philosophy and Theory in Biology

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“…Attempts to ascertain the role of neutral dynamics, as opposed to the more established niche differentiation (Grinnell ; Hutchinson ) or Janzen–Connell effects (Connell ; Janzen ), have been manifold (Hardy & Sonké ; Ruokolainen et al . ; Tang & Zhou ; Gueze et al . ; Chase ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The long-running debate over the identity of these processes has been given fresh impetus in recent years by findings that the observed non-spatial characteristics of tropical tree communities (such as species diversity or abundances) are described well by neutral models that assume ecological equivalence among species (Bell 2001;Hubbell 2001). Attempts to ascertain the role of neutral dynamics, as opposed to the more established niche differentiation (Grinnell 1917;Hutchinson 1958) or Janzen-Connell effects (Connell 1970;Janzen 1970), have been manifold (Hardy & Sonk e 2004;Ruokolainen et al 2009;Tang & Zhou 2011;Gueze et al 2013;Chase 2014). Popular summaries of species occurrence, diversity or abundances have failed to provide a resolution (Hubbell 2001;Chave 2004;McGill et al 2007), but summaries of spatial structure have a rich potential to contribute to this debate (Condit et al 2000;Brown et al 2011Brown et al , 2013 some aspect of the turnover in species composition with site (Jaccard 1912;Odum 1950;Shimatani 2001;Legendre, Borcard & Peres-Neto 2005;Anderson et al 2011;Gonzalez-Caro et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Success of spatial statistics in determining underlying process in simulated plant communities

2015

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Summary Spatial statistics are widely used in studies of ecological processes in plant communities, especially to provide evidence of neutral or non‐neutral mechanisms that might support species coexistence. The contribution of such statistics has been substantial, but their ability to identify any links between underlying processes and emergent patterns is not certain. We investigate the ability of a number of spatial statistics to distinguish theorized mechanisms of species coexistence (spatial and temporal niche differentiation, neutrality, the Janzen–Connell effect and heteromyopia) in a simulated plant community. We find that individual statistics differ substantially in their sensitivity to these mechanisms, with those based on nearest neighbour species identities being the most sensitive. These differences are largely robust to changes in the strength of the modelled mechanisms when simulated independently and in combination. The spatial signal of niche differentiation is always distinct in simulations that combine mechanisms. Synthesis. We describe full spatial signals of modelled coexistence mechanisms that are observed consistently across statistics and simulated strengths and combinations of mechanisms, and identify a set of spatial statistics that holds particular promise for empirical studies designed to investigate mechanisms of these kinds.

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“…On the one hand, Tang and Zhou [22] recently argued that the effects of niche differentiation and recruitment limitation were blended together in Hurtt and Pacala's model because of the assumption of niche differentiation in space among species. By removing niche differentiation, they showed that even a slight competitive asymmetry among species requires an extremely strong dispersal and recruitment limitation to work against it [22]. On the other hand, dispersal is assumed to be symmetric among individuals and species in both the neutral model and Hurtt and Pacala's model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetry in Species Regional Dispersal Ability and the Neutral Theory

Zhou

2011

PLoS ONE

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The neutral assumption that individuals of either the same or different species share exactly the same birth, death, migration, and speciation probabilities is fundamental yet controversial to the neutral theory. Several theoretical studies have demonstrated that a slight difference in species per capita birth or death rates can have a profound consequence on species coexistence and community structure. Whether asymmetry in migration, a vital demographic parameter in the neutral model, plays an important role in community assembly still remains unknown. In this paper, we relaxed the ecological equivalence assumption of the neutral model by introducing differences into species regional dispersal ability. We investigated the effect of asymmetric dispersal on the neutral local community structure. We found that per capita asymmetric dispersal among species could reduce species richness of the local community and result in deviations of species abundance distributions from those predicted by the neutral model. But the effect was moderate compared with that of asymmetries in birth or death rates, unless very large asymmetries in dispersal were assumed. A large difference in species dispersal ability, if there is, can overwhelm the role of random drift and make local community dynamics deterministic. In this case, species with higher regional dispersal abilities tended to dominate in the local community. However, the species abundance distribution of the local community under asymmetric dispersal could be well fitted by the neutral model, but the neutral model generally underestimated the fundamental biodiversity number but overestimated the migration rate in such communities.

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The importance of niche differentiation for coexistence on large scales

Cited by 17 publications

References 34 publications

Exclusions, Explanations, and Exceptions: On the Causal and Lawlike Status of the Competitive Exclusion Principle

Exclusions, Explanations, and Exceptions: On the Causal and Lawlike Status of the Competitive Exclusion Principle

Success of spatial statistics in determining underlying process in simulated plant communities

Asymmetry in Species Regional Dispersal Ability and the Neutral Theory

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