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Related Concept Videos

Ecological Niches02:02

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.
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When organisms require the same limited resources within an environment, they may have to compete for them. Competition is a net-negative interaction. Even if two competing individuals or populations do not interact directly, the overall fitness of both competitors is lowered as a result of not having full access to the limited resource.
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Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less likely to...
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Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
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Published on: March 13, 2014

Species coexistence in a variable world.

Dominique Gravel1, Frédéric Guichard, Michael E Hochberg

  • 1Département de biologie, chimie et géographique, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300 Allée des Ursulines, Québec, Canada G5L 3A1. dominique_gravel@uqar.qc.ca

Ecology Letters
|June 21, 2011
PubMed
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Deterministic and stochastic processes impact species coexistence. Understanding variability in population dynamics is key, requiring positive growth rates and resilience against extinction events for species to coexist.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Population Dynamics
  • Theoretical Ecology

Background:

  • The interplay of deterministic and stochastic processes in species coexistence is a significant area of ecological debate.
  • Advanced statistical methods improve the quantification of niche differentiation and associated uncertainties.
  • Theoretical insights into stochasticity's role in coexistence are often underutilized by field ecologists due to technical complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review and synthesize how various sources of variability in population dynamics influence species coexistence.
  • To bridge the gap between theoretical stochasticity models and practical field applications in ecology.
  • To propose a framework for testing species coexistence that integrates niche differentiation, stability, and ecological drift.

Main Methods:

  • Review of theoretical literature on stochasticity and species coexistence.
  • Analysis of different models examining variability's contribution to population dynamics.
  • Integration of concepts from coexistence theory and population extinction risk.

Main Results:

  • Few universal rules govern how different sources of variability affect coexistence across various models.
  • Two primary conditions for coexistence emerge under environmental and demographic variability: positive average per capita growth rates at low densities and sufficient growth to counteract extinction risks.
  • Niche differentiation arising from variability is crucial for coexistence.

Conclusions:

  • A deeper understanding of species coexistence can be achieved by integrating coexistence theory with population extinction risk.
  • Effective coexistence requires species to maintain positive growth rates and possess resilience against random demographic or environmental fluctuations.
  • Future research and empirical tests for species coexistence should explicitly incorporate niche differentiation, stability metrics, and ecological drift.