scholarly journals R.E. Ricklefs & D. Schluter: Species diversity in ecological communities. Historical and geographical perspectives

1997 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-68
Author(s):  
Leoš Klimeš
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Ecological Communities

scholarly journals Species convergence into life-forms in a hyperseasonal cerrado in central Brazil

2008 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
IA. Silva ◽  
MA. Batalha
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Life Form ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Central Brazil ◽  
Community Convergence

Whether the functional structure of ecological communities is deterministic or historically contingent is still quite controversial. However, recent experimental tests did not find effects of species composition variation on trait convergence and therefore the environmental constraints should play the major role on community convergence into functional groups. Seasonal cerrados are characterized by a sharp seasonality, in which the water shortage defines the community functioning. Hyperseasonal cerrados experience additionally waterlogging in the rainy season. Here, we asked whether waterlogging modifies species convergences into life-forms in a hyperseasonal cerrado. We studied a hyperseasonal cerrado, comparing it with a nearby seasonal cerrado, never waterlogged, in Emas National Park, central Brazil. In each area, we sampled all vascular plants by placing 40 plots of 1 m² plots in four surveys. We analyzed the species convergences into life-forms in both cerrados using the Raunkiaer's life-form spectrum and the index of divergence from species to life-form diversity (IDD). The overall life-form spectra and IDDs were not different, indicating that waterlogging did not affect the composition of functional groups in the hyperseasonal cerrado. However, there was a seasonal variation in IDD values only in the hyperseasonal cerrado. As long as we did not find a seasonal variation in life-form diversity, the seasonal variation of convergence into life-forms in the hyperseasonal cerrado was a consequence of the seasonal variation of species diversity. Because of high functional redundancy of cerrado plants, waterlogging promoted a floristic replacement without major changes in functional groups. Thus, waterlogging in the hyperseasonal cerrado promoted seasonal changes in species convergence into life-forms by reducing species diversity.

Landscape Effects on Community Structure and Dynamics

2019 ◽  
pp. 434-511
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. With
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Habitat Amount ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Landscape Effects ◽  
Diversity Gradients ◽  
Patch Scale

Ecological communities consist of species that interact to varying degrees within the same geographical area, and so by definition exist within a landscape context. This chapter begins by reviewing the measures and different scales at which species diversity can be assayed, including the use of spatial partitioning to evaluate multiscale patterns of diversity. The chapter then reviews correlates of species diversity, including explanations for latitudinal and elevational diversity gradients, before considering how habitat loss and fragmentation are expected to influence species diversity. The chapter tackles the debate surrounding the relative importance of habitat amount versus fragmentation in predicting species’ responses to landscape change, and highlights the importance of studying these effects at a landscape rather than patch scale. The chapter concludes with a discussion of landscape effects on different types of species interactions, and how interactions among species in different communities can give rise to metacommunity structure and dynamics.

scholarly journals Effects of rapid evolution on species coexistence

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (6) ◽  
pp. 2112-2117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon P. Hart ◽  
Martin M. Turcotte ◽  
Jonathan M. Levine
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Interspecific Competition ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Niche Differentiation ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Competing Species ◽  
Ecological Processes

Increasing evidence for rapid evolution suggests that the maintenance of species diversity in ecological communities may be influenced by more than purely ecological processes. Classic theory shows that interspecific competition may select for traits that increase niche differentiation, weakening competition and thus promoting species coexistence. While empirical work has demonstrated trait evolution in response to competition, if and how evolution affects the dynamics of the competing species—the key step for completing the required eco-evolutionary feedback—has been difficult to resolve. Here, we show that evolution in response to interspecific competition feeds back to change the course of competitive population dynamics of aquatic plant species over 10–15 generations in the field. By manipulating selection imposed by heterospecific competitors in experimental ponds, we demonstrate that (i) interspecific competition drives rapid genotypic change, and (ii) this evolutionary change in one competitor, while not changing the coexistence outcome, causes the population trajectories of the two competing species to converge. In contrast to the common expectation that interspecific competition should drive the evolution of niche differentiation, our results suggest that genotypic evolution resulted in phenotypic changes that altered population dynamics by affecting the competitive hierarchy. This result is consistent with theory suggesting that competition for essential resources can limit opportunities for the evolution of niche differentiation. Our finding that rapid evolution regulates the dynamics of competing species suggests that ecosystems may rely on continuous feedbacks between ecology and evolution to maintain species diversity.

scholarly journals Scale Expansion of Community Investigations and Integration of the Effects of Abiotic and Biotic Processes on Maintenance of Species Diversity

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Zhenhong Wang ◽  
Ming Zhang ◽  
Junfeng Yu ◽  
Ruicong Jiang ◽  
Xiaolu Yin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Community Ecology ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Successional Stage ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
Local Site ◽  
Pool Level ◽  
Scale Expansion

Information on the maintenance of diversity patterns from regional to local scales is dispersed among academic fields due to the local focus of community ecology. To better understand these patterns, the study of ecological communities needs to be expanded to larger scales and the various processes affecting them need to be integrated using a suitable quantitative method. We determined a range of communities on a flora-subregional scale in Yunnan province, China (383210.02 km2). A series of species pools were delimited from the regional to plot scales. Plant diversity was evaluated and abiotic and biotic processes identified at each pool level. The species pool effect was calculated using an innovative model, and the contribution of these processes to the maintenance of plant species diversity was determined and integrated: climate had the greatest effect at the flora-subregional scale, with historical and evolutionary processes contributing ∼11%; climate and human disturbance had the greatest effect at the local site pool scale; competition exclusion and stress limitation explained strong filtering at the successional stage pool scale; biotic processes contributed more on the local community scale than on the regional scale. Scale expansion combined with the filtering model approach solves the local problem in community ecology.

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