Facilitation Thinking for Coexistence Theory

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Community Ecology
• Biodiversity Science

Background:

• Species interactions are crucial for maintaining biodiversity.
• Facilitation, a common interaction, is theoretically underdeveloped in predicting species coexistence.
• Existing coexistence theory often overlooks the impact of facilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the underrepresentation of facilitation in ecological coexistence theory.
• To propose 'facilitation thinking' as a framework to integrate facilitation into coexistence models.
• To redefine coexistence by incorporating diverse species interaction outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and theoretical evaluation of facilitation in ecology.
• Analysis of contemporary coexistence theory and its ambivalence towards facilitation.
• Conceptual development of 'facilitation thinking'.

Main Results:

• Facilitation is empirically widespread but theoretically marginalized in coexistence studies.
• A significant gap exists between empirical observations of facilitation and mathematical coexistence theory.
• Current theories inadequately capture the full spectrum of species interactions.

Conclusions:

• Integrating facilitation into theory is essential for a comprehensive understanding of species coexistence.
• Facilitation thinking can reconfigure basic definitions and predictions of coexistence.
• An expanded coexistence theory accounting for diverse interactions is needed for biodiversity maintenance.