A Shared Niche? The Case of the Species Pair Protea obtusifolia-Leucadendron meridianum

Laurie, Henri; Mustart, Penny; Cowling, Richard M.

doi:10.2307/3546097

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In eukaryotic models of colonization via a competitive lottery, functional groupings (or "guilds") often reflect taxonomic groupings (15,(73)(74)(75)(76). Alternatively, there may be taxonomic redundancy, in which any given function is distributed broadly across a variety of taxa as opposed to being associated with any particular taxonomic group.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although our samples are taken over a limited time scale, and thus do not fully accommodate potential successional or historic changes in these communities, the evidence presented here and in our previous study (13) is most consistent with a competitive lottery model for community assembly on the surface of U. australis. Originally proposed for coral reef fish (15,73), and subsequently applied to plant (74,75) and parasite communities (76), the lottery model combines functional (niche-or guild-based) and random components as drivers of community structure. Specifically, species with similar trophic or other ecological properties are able to occupy the same niche within an ecosystem, and the particular species that occupies a particular space is then determined by stochastic recruitment.…”

Section: Structure Of Bacterial Communities: Assembly Of Functional Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bacterial community assembly based on functional genes rather than species

Burke¹,

Steinberg

Rusch

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

725

606

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The principles underlying the assembly and structure of complex microbial communities are an issue of long-standing concern to the field of microbial ecology. We previously analyzed the community membership of bacterial communities associated with the green macroalga Ulva australis, and proposed a competitive lottery model for colonization of the algal surface in an attempt to explain the surprising lack of similarity in species composition across different algal samples. Here we extend the previous study by investigating the link between community structure and function in these communities, using metagenomic sequence analysis. Despite the high phylogenetic variability in microbial species composition on different U. australis (only 15% similarity between samples), similarity in functional composition was high (70%), and a core of functional genes present across all algal-associated communities was identified that were consistent with the ecology of surface-and hostassociated bacteria. These functions were distributed widely across a variety of taxa or phylogenetic groups. This observation of similarity in habitat (niche) use with respect to functional genes, but not species, together with the relative ease with which bacteria share genetic material, suggests that the key level at which to address the assembly and structure of bacterial communities may not be "species" (by means of rRNA taxonomy), but rather the more functional level of genes.lateral gene transfer | biofilm | ecological model M etagenomic analysis of environmental microbial communities has revealed an enormous and previously unknown microbial diversity, and expanded our knowledge of their function in a variety of environments (1-5). Much still remains unknown, however, such as the principles underlying the assembly and structure of complex microbial communities, an issue of long-standing concern to the field of microbial ecology. To this aim, several recent studies have supported the "neutral hypothesis" (6-8), a largely stochastic model for community assembly, which assumes that species are ecologically equivalent and that community structure is determined by random processes (9, 10). However, there is also evidence that niche or deterministic processes play a role in community structure (11, 12); thus, both niche and neutral processes are likely to affect the assembly of complex microbial communities.Support for these models is based on species abundance distributions, and critical functional aspects, such as the assumption of ecological equivalence, have for the most part not been tested. In this study, we examine the encoded functions of an algalassociated bacterial community and link patterns of function to patterns of community assembly. Following the results of an earlier study (13), we investigate these communities in the context of the lottery hypothesis, a model for community "assembly" derived from studies of eukaryotic communities, such as coral reef fish (14). This hypothesis incorporates both neutral and functional aspects and arg...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Structure Of Bacterial Communities: Assembly Of Functional Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial community assembly based on functional genes rather than species

Burke¹,

Steinberg

Rusch

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

725

606

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Å gren and Fagerstrøm (1984) suggested that species with similar resource niches may coexist if they are sufficiently similar in their skills to compete for the limiting resource. Keddy (1989) likewise argued that species with similar niches can coexist because their competitive abilities are symmetrical, and neither can thus exclude the other. Wiens (1993) related niche overlap to competition strength.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The competitive exclusion principle became a paradigm for ecological thinking during the last century and a great number of resource partitioning studies have provided support for the theory by documenting the shared niche dimension that allow species to coexist (Schoener 1974;Moyle 1977;Ross 1986;Greenberg 1991). However, despite its status as a paradigm the competitive exclusion principle has been challenged (Hardin 1960;Walter 1988;Leibold 1998) and several modifications have been proposed (Å gren and Fagerstrøm 1984;Keddy 1989;Wiens 1993;Bengtsson et al 1994;Jensen 1996;Schoener 1989). Å gren and Fagerstrøm (1984) suggested that species with similar resource niches may coexist if they are sufficiently similar in their skills to compete for the limiting resource.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Feeding strategies, resource utilisation and potential mechanisms for competitive coexistence of Atlantic salmon and alpine bullhead in a sub-Arctic river

Gabler

Amundsen

2009

Aquat Ecol

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We scrutinised the seasonal food-niche utilisation of river dwelling Atlantic salmon parr and alpine bullhead in order to examine potential mechanisms that may facilitate coexistence of species with similar niches. Fish were sampled monthly during the ice-free season, and diet composition and feeding strategy of the two species were compared by analyses of stomach contents. The dietary niches and feeding strategy of salmon parr and bullheads were highly similar both at the individual and population levels, with high within-phenotype contributions to niche width and pronounced generalisation observed during time periods with severe resource limitations. Our findings suggest that competitive coexistence with similar niches may be facilitated by a generalisation of niche width as predicted by optimal foraging theory, rather than the specialised niche width predicted by classic niche theory as a response to interspecific competition. Competitive coexistence may be particularly widespread in spatially and temporally dynamic habitats such as northern lotic systems, which thus may select for generalisation and convergence of ecological niches.

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“…see [5,6]). Lottery models also provide a basis for understanding the coexistence of multiple species in terrestrial systems [7]. Additionally, Dewi and Chesson [8] studied a lottery model with a stage structure and Comins and Noble [9] studied the model with heterogeneous patches.…”

Section: P I (T + 1) = (1 − δ I (T))p I (T) + S(p 1 (T) P N mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of a lottery competition model with limited nutrient availability

Iwata

Takeuchi

Kon

2007

Journal of Biological Dynamics

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How a plant species utilizes a limited nutrient is important for its survival. The purpose of this work is to examine how nutrient utilization mechanisms (for seed production) affect the coexistence of competing plant species. We construct a revised lottery model that uses one of three possible kinds of nutrient utilization functions. In all cases the models suggest that two species can coexist under certain circumstances, but that three species cannot coexist, at least when the nutrient utilization functions are continuous functions of nutrient uptake. However, in the discontinuous case three species can coexist in a state of sustained oscillations. The results suggest that one need pay close attention to the differences in the nutrient utilization mechanisms among competing plant species in order to ascertain the competitive outcome.

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A Shared Niche? The Case of the Species Pair Protea obtusifolia-Leucadendron meridianum

Cited by 17 publications

References 24 publications

Bacterial community assembly based on functional genes rather than species

Bacterial community assembly based on functional genes rather than species

Feeding strategies, resource utilisation and potential mechanisms for competitive coexistence of Atlantic salmon and alpine bullhead in a sub-Arctic river

Analysis of a lottery competition model with limited nutrient availability

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