Migration as a Factor in the Community Structure of a Macroarthropod Litter Fauna

Vandermeer, John; Lazarus, Jan; Ludwig, Craig A.; Lyon, John; Schultz, Brian B.; Yih, Katherine

doi:10.1086/283585

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…It is notable that even the coarsest distinction of trophic complexity (predators and non‐predators) provides insights that do not emerge when analyzing the community as a whole. These findings echo those of the earlier study (Vandermeer et al ) which was done with a lower‐biodiversity temperate leaf litter community. Results from both this and the earlier study seemingly contradict a main conclusion of basic metacommunity theory: that migration increases species’ persistence, and thus regional richness.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…All mesocosms were harvested on day 20. This time scale is comparable to Vandermeer et al's () experiment which ran for 30 days.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 78%

“…One of the early attempts to study the role of migration in empirical metacommunities used leaf litter macro‐arthropod communities and found that the predator guild (defined taxonomically) decreased in richness when random migration was induced, while non‐predator richness was unaffected by migration (Vandermeer et al ). These results suggest that conclusions about metacommunity structure may, at least in some contexts, be trophic‐specific.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The empirical result that experimental migrations make a difference in metacommunity structure for predators, but not for non‐predators (Vandermeer et al ), was found in a species‐poor temperate deciduous forest (Michigan, USA). Here we revisit the experiment conducted by Vandermeer et al () in a more speciose montane tropical agroecosystem. We considered that in the tropics, the hypothesized stability‐preserving aspect of high biodiversity (McCann ) could overwhelm any special effect of a strongly antagonistic predator species, which was proposed to explain the results of the earlier temperate zone study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From these formulations, an important conclusion of metapopulation theory has been tacitly incorporated as an obvious corollary of metacommunity theory – that increasing migration lowers overall extinction probability. While it may be a reasonable proposition at first glance, further reflection on the assumption suggests that the expectation of lowered extinction is not universal in the metacommunity context (Vandermeer et al , Caswell and Cohen ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trophic‐specific responses to migration in empirical metacommunities

Hajian‐Forooshani

Schmitt

Medina

et al. 2020

Oikos

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The metacommunity, as it evolved from Levins's metapopulation, provides a framework to consider the spatial organization of species interactions. A defining feature of metapopulations and metacommunities is that organisms (populations or communities) are connected via migration. An important result from Levins's metapopulation work – that increasing migration lowers regional extinction probability – is often incorporated into conceptions of metacommunities; however, this may not hold true for multiple interacting metapopulations (i.e. metacommunities). We report results from a metacommunity field experiment conducted with a tropical terrestrial leaf litter macro‐arthropod community. We show that migration induces regional extinctions of predators without significantly changing the predator community composition. For non‐predators we found no evidence of regional extinctions, but a significant change in community composition. Our result corroborates the findings of a prior similar metacommunity experiment with a temperate forest leaf litter community. The concordance between these experiments, even with vastly different communities, highlights the importance of considering trophic and non‐trophic community structure to understand metacommunity dynamics, and suggests a potential connection between migration rates and trophic‐specific responses in ecological communities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…All mesocosms were harvested on day 20. This time scale is comparable to Vandermeer et al's () experiment which ran for 30 days.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Trophic‐specific responses to migration in empirical metacommunities

Hajian‐Forooshani

Schmitt

Medina

et al. 2020

Oikos

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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From Metapopulation to Metacommunity and the Complications of Community Structure

Hajian‐Forooshani

Schmitt

Medina

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The metacommunity, as it evolved from Levin's metapopulation, provides a framework to consider the spatial organization of species interactions. Arguably the most fundamental feature of metapopulations and metacommunities are that demes are connected via migration. An important result from Levin's metapopulation work-that increasing migration lowers regional extinction probability-is often incorporated into conceptions of metacommunities. We first use a toy model to show how this result from Levin's metapopulation does not necessarily hold when considering community interactions in a metacommunity context. We also report results from a metacommunity field experiment conducted with a tropical terrestrial leaf litter community and show that migration induces the extinction of predators in the metacommunity. Our result corroborates the findings of a prior metacommunity experiment in a temperate terrestrial leaf litter community. The concordance between these experiments even with vastly di↵erent communities highlights the importance of considering trophic and non-trophic community structure to understand metacommunity dynamics.

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