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Competition-colonization dynamics and multimodality in diversity-disturbance relationships
Jinbao Liao1, György Barabás2,3, Daniel Bearup4
1Research Center for Theoretical Ecology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China.
Ecology
|March 2, 2022
Summary
The intermediate disturbance hypothesis often fails to explain species diversity patterns. This study shows that complex competition models naturally produce multimodal diversity-disturbance relationships, suggesting this pattern is key to understanding ecological communities.
Area of Science:
- Community ecology
- Ecological dynamics
- Biodiversity research
Background:
- Disturbance is a key factor influencing species diversity.
- The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) predicts a unimodal diversity-disturbance relationship (DDR), but empirical data show diverse DDRs.
- The precise form of the DDR remains debated in ecological research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a metacommunity framework explaining complex competition patterns.
- To investigate the emergence of multimodal DDRs.
- To reconcile theoretical predictions with diverse empirical observations of DDRs.
Main Methods:
- Development of a simple yet comprehensive metacommunity framework.
- Numerical simulations to model community dynamics.
- Analytical arguments to support simulation findings.
Main Results:
- Strongly multimodal DDRs arise naturally within the developed framework.
- The emergence of multimodality is robust to parameter changes and relaxed competitive hierarchies.
- The findings suggest that complex competitive dynamics underlie observed DDRs.
Conclusions:
- Multimodality is a robust property of DDRs in competition models.
- Observed 'noise' in empirical DDRs may indicate underlying competitive dynamics.
- This work provides a new perspective on the drivers of species diversity under disturbance.
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