Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Saito, Victor S.
Data de Publicação: 2018
Outros Autores: Laroche, Fabien, Siqueira, Tadeu [UNESP], Pavoine, Sandrine
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2197
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/176115
Resumo: The role of niche differences and competition is invoked when one finds coexisting species to be more dissimilar in trait composition than expected at random in community assembly studies. This approach has been questioned as competition has been hypothesized to either lead to communities assembled by similar or dissimilar species, depending on whether species similarity reflects fitness or niche differences, respectively. A current problem is that the arguments used to draw relationships between competition and species similarity are based on pairwise theoretical examples, while in nature competition can occurs among a constellation of species with different levels of versatility in resources used. By versatility we mean the documented ability of some species to escape competition for commonly used resources by changing for marginal and unused resources. Thus, a versatile species will have the ability to decrease niche overlap with all other species when facing strong competitors. When these species are embedded in multiple interactions the role of pairwise niche and fitness differences could be reduced due to indirect effects and thus competition would not be detectable. Here we developed a coexistence theory where competition occurs simultaneously among multiple species with different levels of versatility and then used it in a simulation to unravel patterns of species similarity during community assembly. We found that simulated communities can be assembled by species with more, less or equal similarity compared to a null model when using a mean distance based metric (SES.MPD). However, contrasting these varied results, we consistently found species overdispersion using a nearest neighbor-based metric (SES.MNTD), even when species differences reflected more directly their competitive abilities than their niche differences. Strong tendency to overdispersion emerged when high ecological versatility promoted large niche differences and enabled coexistence. This is because versatility to use marginal resources compensates possible fitness differences among species. Our findings provide mounting evidence of the important role of minimum niche differences and versatility in resource consumption for species embedded in multiple direct and indirect interactions.
id UNSP_a93a95bf4a5240fe69ce4b1e9da38b9d
oai_identifier_str oai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/176115
network_acronym_str UNSP
network_name_str Repositório Institucional da UNESP
repository_id_str 2946
spelling Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferencesassembly rulesclusteringfunctional diversityfunctional versatilitylimiting similaritymultispecies competitionniche theoryoverdispersionThe role of niche differences and competition is invoked when one finds coexisting species to be more dissimilar in trait composition than expected at random in community assembly studies. This approach has been questioned as competition has been hypothesized to either lead to communities assembled by similar or dissimilar species, depending on whether species similarity reflects fitness or niche differences, respectively. A current problem is that the arguments used to draw relationships between competition and species similarity are based on pairwise theoretical examples, while in nature competition can occurs among a constellation of species with different levels of versatility in resources used. By versatility we mean the documented ability of some species to escape competition for commonly used resources by changing for marginal and unused resources. Thus, a versatile species will have the ability to decrease niche overlap with all other species when facing strong competitors. When these species are embedded in multiple interactions the role of pairwise niche and fitness differences could be reduced due to indirect effects and thus competition would not be detectable. Here we developed a coexistence theory where competition occurs simultaneously among multiple species with different levels of versatility and then used it in a simulation to unravel patterns of species similarity during community assembly. We found that simulated communities can be assembled by species with more, less or equal similarity compared to a null model when using a mean distance based metric (SES.MPD). However, contrasting these varied results, we consistently found species overdispersion using a nearest neighbor-based metric (SES.MNTD), even when species differences reflected more directly their competitive abilities than their niche differences. Strong tendency to overdispersion emerged when high ecological versatility promoted large niche differences and enabled coexistence. This is because versatility to use marginal resources compensates possible fitness differences among species. Our findings provide mounting evidence of the important role of minimum niche differences and versatility in resource consumption for species embedded in multiple direct and indirect interactions.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Departamento de Ciências Ambientais - DCAm and Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Recursos Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luis, km 235Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO UMR7204) Sorbonne Universités MNHN CNRS UPMC CP51, 43-61 rue BuffonIrstea UR EFNODepartamento de Ecologia Instituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Av. 24-A, 1515, 13506-900Departamento de Ecologia Instituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Av. 24-A, 1515, 13506-900FAPESP: 2013/20540-0FAPESP: 2013/50424-1FAPESP: 2014/24532-4CNPq: 403723/2012-4Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar)CP51UR EFNOUniversidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)Saito, Victor S.Laroche, FabienSiqueira, Tadeu [UNESP]Pavoine, Sandrine2018-12-11T17:19:07Z2018-12-11T17:19:07Z2018-05-01info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/article1173-1183application/pdfhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2197Ecology, v. 99, n. 5, p. 1173-1183, 2018.0012-9658http://hdl.handle.net/11449/17611510.1002/ecy.21972-s2.0-850447602482-s2.0-85044760248.pdfScopusreponame:Repositório Institucional da UNESPinstname:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)instacron:UNESPengEcology2,998info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess2023-11-18T06:13:27Zoai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/176115Repositório InstitucionalPUBhttp://repositorio.unesp.br/oai/requestopendoar:29462024-08-05T18:03:05.530894Repositório Institucional da UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)false
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
title Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
spellingShingle Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
Saito, Victor S.
assembly rules
clustering
functional diversity
functional versatility
limiting similarity
multispecies competition
niche theory
overdispersion
title_short Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
title_full Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
title_fullStr Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
title_full_unstemmed Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
title_sort Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences
author Saito, Victor S.
author_facet Saito, Victor S.
Laroche, Fabien
Siqueira, Tadeu [UNESP]
Pavoine, Sandrine
author_role author
author2 Laroche, Fabien
Siqueira, Tadeu [UNESP]
Pavoine, Sandrine
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar)
CP51
UR EFNO
Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Saito, Victor S.
Laroche, Fabien
Siqueira, Tadeu [UNESP]
Pavoine, Sandrine
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv assembly rules
clustering
functional diversity
functional versatility
limiting similarity
multispecies competition
niche theory
overdispersion
topic assembly rules
clustering
functional diversity
functional versatility
limiting similarity
multispecies competition
niche theory
overdispersion
description The role of niche differences and competition is invoked when one finds coexisting species to be more dissimilar in trait composition than expected at random in community assembly studies. This approach has been questioned as competition has been hypothesized to either lead to communities assembled by similar or dissimilar species, depending on whether species similarity reflects fitness or niche differences, respectively. A current problem is that the arguments used to draw relationships between competition and species similarity are based on pairwise theoretical examples, while in nature competition can occurs among a constellation of species with different levels of versatility in resources used. By versatility we mean the documented ability of some species to escape competition for commonly used resources by changing for marginal and unused resources. Thus, a versatile species will have the ability to decrease niche overlap with all other species when facing strong competitors. When these species are embedded in multiple interactions the role of pairwise niche and fitness differences could be reduced due to indirect effects and thus competition would not be detectable. Here we developed a coexistence theory where competition occurs simultaneously among multiple species with different levels of versatility and then used it in a simulation to unravel patterns of species similarity during community assembly. We found that simulated communities can be assembled by species with more, less or equal similarity compared to a null model when using a mean distance based metric (SES.MPD). However, contrasting these varied results, we consistently found species overdispersion using a nearest neighbor-based metric (SES.MNTD), even when species differences reflected more directly their competitive abilities than their niche differences. Strong tendency to overdispersion emerged when high ecological versatility promoted large niche differences and enabled coexistence. This is because versatility to use marginal resources compensates possible fitness differences among species. Our findings provide mounting evidence of the important role of minimum niche differences and versatility in resource consumption for species embedded in multiple direct and indirect interactions.
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018-12-11T17:19:07Z
2018-12-11T17:19:07Z
2018-05-01
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2197
Ecology, v. 99, n. 5, p. 1173-1183, 2018.
0012-9658
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/176115
10.1002/ecy.2197
2-s2.0-85044760248
2-s2.0-85044760248.pdf
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2197
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/176115
identifier_str_mv Ecology, v. 99, n. 5, p. 1173-1183, 2018.
0012-9658
10.1002/ecy.2197
2-s2.0-85044760248
2-s2.0-85044760248.pdf
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Ecology
2,998
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv 1173-1183
application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Scopus
reponame:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
instname:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
instacron:UNESP
instname_str Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
instacron_str UNESP
institution UNESP
reponame_str Repositório Institucional da UNESP
collection Repositório Institucional da UNESP
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositório Institucional da UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1808128888816009216