Experimental Studies of the Niche

Colwell, Robert K.; Fuentes, Eduardo R.

doi:10.1146/annurev.es.06.110175.001433

Cited by 321 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…So the largest-seeded species (rank 1) can only tolerate patches assigned a "1" (the least severe), while the smallest-seeded species (rank N) can tolerate all patches. This is analogous to the included niche models (reviewed by Colwell and Fuentes 1975) typically used to explain plant zonation across environmental gradients (see citations in Levine et al 1998) and is also hypothesized to contribute to coexistence by Turnbull et al (1999).…”

Section: Environmental Heterogeneitymentioning

confidence: 77%

Coexistence and Relative Abundance in Annual Plant Assemblages: The Roles of Competition and Colonization

Levine

Rees

2002

The American Naturalist

142

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Article: Levine, J.M. and Rees, M. (2002) Coexistence and relative abundance in annual plant assemblages: The roles of competition and colonization. American Naturalist, 160 (4). pp. [452][453][454][455][456][457][458][459][460][461][462][463][464][465][466][467] eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version -refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher's website. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. abstract: Although an interspecific trade-off between competitive and colonizing ability can permit multispecies coexistence, whether this mechanism controls the structure of natural systems remains unresolved. We used models to evaluate the hypothesized importance of this trade-off for explaining coexistence and relative abundance patterns in annual plant assemblages. In a nonspatial model, empirically derived competition-colonization trade-offs related to seed mass were insufficient to generate coexistence. This was unchanged by spatial structure or interspecific variation in the fraction of seeds dispersing globally. These results differ from those of the more generalized competition-colonization models because the latter assume completely asymmetric competition, an assumption that appears unrealistic considering existing data for annual systems. When, for heuristic purposes, completely asymmetric competition was incorporated into our models, unlimited coexistence was possible. However, in the resulting abundance patterns, the best competitors/poorest colonizers were the most abundant, the opposite of that observed in natural systems. By contrast, these natural patterns were produced by competition-colonization models where environmental heterogeneity permitted species coexistence. Thus, despite the failure of the simple competition-colonization trade-off to explain coexistence in annual plant systems, this trade-off may be essential to explaining relative abundance patterns when other processes permit coexistence.

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Section: Environmental Heterogeneitymentioning

confidence: 77%

Coexistence and Relative Abundance in Annual Plant Assemblages: The Roles of Competition and Colonization

Levine

Rees

2002

The American Naturalist

142

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“…At a more local scale, there are some excellent examples of genotypes with sharply different niche requirements. For instance, along a thermal gradient along a channel emanating from a hot spring, different strains of the cyanobacterium Synechoccus lividus sort out in accord with different maximal thermal tolerance (66,67). Such case studies demonstrate that a species' total ecological niche can encompass more specialized niches among local populations (Fig.…”

Section: The Evolutionary Nichementioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing the Hutchinsonian niche into the 21st century: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives

Holt

2009

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

781

717

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G. Evelyn Hutchinson more than a half century ago proposed that one could characterize the ecological niche of a species as an abstract mapping of population dynamics onto an environmental space, the axes of which are abiotic and biotic factors that influence birth and death rates. If a habitat has conditions within a species' niche, a population should persist without immigration from external sources, whereas if conditions are outside the niche, it faces extinction. Analyses of species' niches are essential to understanding controls on species' geographical range limits and how these limits might shift in our rapidly changing world. Recent developments in ecology and evolutionary biology suggest it is time to revisit and refine Hutchinson's niche concept. After reviewing techniques for quantifying niches, I examine subtleties that arise because of impacts species have on their own environments, the density-dependent modulation of how individuals experience environments, and the interplay of dispersal and temporal heterogeneity in determining population persistence. Moreover, the evolutionary record over all time scales reveals a spectrum of rates of change in species' niches, from rapid niche evolution to profound niche conservatism. Substantial challenges revolving around the evolutionary dimension of the Hutchinsonian niche include quantifying the magnitude of evolved intraspecific and clade-level variation in niches and understanding the factors that govern where along the spectrum of potential evolutionary rates any given lineage lies. A growing body of theory provides elements of a conceptual framework for understanding niche conservatism and evolution, paving the way for an evolutionary theory of the niche.Allee effects ͉ ecological niche ͉ landscape texture ͉ niche conservatism ͉ niche evolution T he niche concept is central to ecology (1, 2). G. EvelynHutchinson in a seminal essay Ͼ50 years ago (1) proposed a formalization of the niche that still resonates in the minds of ecologists. After years of quiescence, there has been a recent upsurge of interest in species' niches (2, 3), driven in part by the urgency of predicting ecological responses to rapid environmental change. In this article, after summarizing Hutchinson's niche concept and sketching empirical approaches to quantifying niches, I will point out limitations in standard articulations of the Hutchinsonian niche. Some arise from its focus on a species solely when it is rare, which can belie the impact of positive density dependence and feedback processes on population persistence; others arise from its relative neglect of temporal variation and spatial dynamics; and yet others arise from genetic variation and evolution in the niche itself. These reflections will lead to alternative and complementary niche definitions, enriching and extending Hutchinson's concept.

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“…Indeed, they house a wide array of fishes where niche partitioning may be viewed as one of the key factors in the course of their diversification. These resulting high levels of ecological diversity have allowed the stable co-occurrence of similar species (Schoener 1974;Colwell and Fuentes 1975). Within that context, unravelling the multiplicity of factors acting upon the fish community represents a key challenge to be tackled.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic specializations of damselfishes are tightly associated with reef habitats and social behaviours

et al. 2016

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Experimental Studies of the Niche

Cited by 321 publications

References 62 publications

Coexistence and Relative Abundance in Annual Plant Assemblages: The Roles of Competition and Colonization

Coexistence and Relative Abundance in Annual Plant Assemblages: The Roles of Competition and Colonization

Bringing the Hutchinsonian niche into the 21st century: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives

Trophic specializations of damselfishes are tightly associated with reef habitats and social behaviours

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