Building modern coexistence theory from the ground up: The role of community assembly

Spaak, Jurg W.; Schreiber, Sebastian J.

doi:10.1111/ele.14302

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 112 publications

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“…Different solutions have been proposed to tackle this challenge, attempting to reduce the complexity of the actual growth model to a Lotka-Volterra model to compute niche and fitness differences (Letten et al, 2017;Singh & Baruah, 2021;Yamamichi et al, 2022). In all these proposed solutions, niche and fitness differences explain why a species can grow from rare, that is, why they have a positive invasion growth rate which ensures coexistence (Spaak & Schreiber, 2023). It, therefore, generally neglects higher-order interactions where both species are abundant.…”

Section: E T T E Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generally, niche and fitness differences are estimated to better understand coexistence and are, therefore, applied to the invasion growth rates (Carroll et al., 2011; Spaak & De Laender, 2020), as positive invasion growth rates of competing species typically imply coexistence (Spaak & Schreiber, 2023; Box 1). Additionally, the sign and magnitude of niche and fitness differences inform about the species interactions, both in quality (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Higher‐order species interactions cause time‐dependent niche and fitness differences: Experimental evidence in plant‐feeding arthropods

Majer,

Skoracka,

Spaak

et al. 2024

Ecology Letters

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Species interact in different ways, including competition, facilitation and predation. These interactions can be non‐linear or higher order and may depend on time or species densities. Although these higher‐order interactions are virtually ubiquitous, they remain poorly understood, as they are challenging both theoretically and empirically. We propose to adapt niche and fitness differences from modern coexistence theory and apply them to species interactions over time. As such, they may not merely inform about coexistence, but provide a deeper understanding of how species interactions change. Here, we investigated how the exploitation of a biotic resource (plant) by phytophagous arthropods affects their interactions. We performed monoculture and competition experiments to fit a generalized additive mixed model to the empirical data, which allowed us to calculate niche and fitness differences. We found that species switch between different types of interactions over time, including intra‐ and interspecific facilitation, and strong and weak competition.

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Section: E T T E Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher‐order species interactions cause time‐dependent niche and fitness differences: Experimental evidence in plant‐feeding arthropods

Majer,

Skoracka,

Spaak

et al. 2024

Ecology Letters

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The assembly and dynamics of ecological communities in an ever‐changing world

Godoy,

Soler‐Toscano,

Portillo

et al. 2024

Ecological Monographs

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Alternative perspectives on the maintenance of biodiversity and the assembly of ecological communities suggest that both processes cannot be investigated simultaneously. In this concept and synthesis, we challenge this view by presenting major theoretical advances in structural stability and permanence theory. These advances, which provide complementary views, allow studying the short‐ and long‐term dynamics of ecological communities as changes in species richness, composition, and abundance. Here, the global attractor, technically named informational structure (IS), is the central element to construct from information of species' intrinsic growth rates and their strength and sign of interactions. The global attractor has four main properties: (1) It contains all the limits of what is feasible and unfeasible of the dynamical behavior of an ecological system, therefore, (2) it provides a thorough characterization of all combinations of species' richness and composition in which species can coexist (i.e., feasible and stable equilibrium), (3) as well as all connections (paths) of assembly between coexisting communities. Importantly, (4) such topology of coexisting communities and their connections changes when environmental (abiotic and biotic) variation affects the ability of species to grow and interact with others. Overall, these four properties allow switching from a traditional evaluation of species coexistence at equilibrium to a much more realistic nonequilibrium perspective where changes in the structure of the global attractor underlie the transient ecological dynamics. Several fields in ecology can benefit from the study of an IS. For instance, it can serve to evaluate community responses after the end of a perturbation, to design restoration trajectories, to study the consequences of biological invasions on the persistence of native species within communities, or to assess ecosystem health status. We illustrate this latter possibility with empirical observations of 7 years in Mediterranean annual grasslands. We document that extremely wet or dry years generate ISs supporting few coexisting communities and few assembly paths. The remaining communities distinguish winners from losers of ongoing climate change and indicate the limits to future community assembly opportunities. A fully tractable operational framework is readily available to understand and predict the assembly and dynamics of ecological communities in an ever‐changing world.

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Unleashing the Power of Plant Structural and Functional Diversity: From Common Observations to Theory and Management Models

Bravo,

van der Werf,

Tognetti

et al. 2024

Food and Energy Security

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New approaches for managing agricultural and forestry systems are needed to bring back inputs to levels that are within planetary boundaries and make greater and better use of ecosystem services based on biodiversity. A new scientific framework informed by ecology, agronomy, forestry, and agroforestry is key to designing resilient plant‐based ecosystems to meet this challenge. Integrating information on plant functional traits, ontogenetic development stages, site characteristics, and structural stand characteristics can unleash the power of diversity (in species traits and structural and temporal arrangements) as a crucial factor for sustaining environmental services in times of global change. To leverage the benefits of diversity, a general theoretical framework and scalable simulation models are needed to understand structural and species diversification effects and interactions at multiple levels, from plant to field/forest stand to landscape. By working across established research boundaries, the scientific community can harness the power of structural and functional diversity to develop resilient, production‐oriented ecosystems. With this integrative approach, our objectives are as follows: (i) to conceptualize processes and methodologies for managing resilient terrestrial ecosystems that can guarantee sustainable and diversified ecosystem services within planetary boundaries, and (ii) to outline the workflow for crafting a system capable of sustaining human well‐being amid space, resource, and energy constraints.

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Building modern coexistence theory from the ground up: The role of community assembly

Cited by 9 publications

References 112 publications

Higher‐order species interactions cause time‐dependent niche and fitness differences: Experimental evidence in plant‐feeding arthropods

Higher‐order species interactions cause time‐dependent niche and fitness differences: Experimental evidence in plant‐feeding arthropods

The assembly and dynamics of ecological communities in an ever‐changing world

Unleashing the Power of Plant Structural and Functional Diversity: From Common Observations to Theory and Management Models

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