scholarly journals The effect of resource dynamics on species packing in diverse ecosystems

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenping Cui ◽  
Robert Marsland ◽  
Pankaj Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Exclusion ◽  
Exclusion Principle ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Resource Model ◽  
Competitive Exclusion Principle ◽  
Species Packing ◽  
Resource Dynamics ◽  
Coexisting Species ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Consumer Resource

The competitive exclusion principle asserts that coexisting species must occupy distinct ecological niches (i.e. the number of surviving species can not exceed the number of resources). An open question is to understand if and how different resource dynamics affect this bound. Here, we analyze a generalized consumer resource model with externally supplied resources and show that – in contrast to self-renewing resources – species can occupy only half of all available environmental niches. This motivates us to construct a new schema for classifying ecosystems based on species packing properties.

scholarly journals Overcome Competitive Exclusion in Ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Yang-Yu Liu
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Competitive Exclusion ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Exclusion Principle ◽  
Competitive Exclusion Principle ◽  
The Past ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Coexisting Species ◽  
Consumer Resource

AbstractExplaining biodiversity in nature is a fundamental problem in ecology. One great challenge is embodied in the so-called competitive exclusion principle1-4: the number of species in steady coexistence cannot exceed the number of resources4-7. In the past five decades, various mechanisms have been proposed to overcome the limit on diversity set by the competitive exclusion principle8-25. Yet, none of the existing mechanisms can generically overcome competitive exclusion at steady state4,26. Here we show that by forming chasing triplets in the predation process among the consumers and resources, the number of coexisting species of consumers can exceed that of resources at steady state, naturally breaking the competitive exclusion principle. Our model can be broadly applicable to explain the biodiversity of many consumer-resource ecosystems and deepen our understanding of biodiversity in nature.

scholarly journals Evolution of diversity in metabolic strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Caetano ◽  
Y. Ispolatov ◽  
M. Doebeli
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Exclusion Principle ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Competitive Exclusion Principle ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Coexisting Species ◽  
Metabolic Strategies ◽  
Very High ◽  
Consumer Resource

Understanding the origin and maintenance of biodiversity is a fundamental problem. Many theoretical approaches have been investigating ecological interactions, such as competition, as potential drivers of diversification. Classical consumer-resource models predict that the number of coexisting species should not exceed the number of distinct resources, a phenomenon known as the competitive exclusion principle. It has recently been argued that including physiological tradeoffs in consumer-resource models can lead to violations of this principle and to ecological coexistence of very high numbers of species. Here we show that these results crucially depend on the functional form of the tradeoff. We investigate the evolutionary dynamics of resource use constrained by tradeoffs and show that if the tradeoffs are non-linear, the system either does not diversify, or diversifies into a number of coexisting species that does not exceed the number of resources. In particular, very high diversity can only be observed for linear tradeoffs.

scholarly journals Evolution of diversity in metabolic strategies

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Caetano ◽  
Yaroslav Ispolatov ◽  
Michael Doebeli
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Exclusion Principle ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Competitive Exclusion Principle ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Coexisting Species ◽  
Metabolic Strategies ◽  
Very High ◽  
Consumer Resource

Understanding the origin and maintenance of biodiversity is a fundamental problem. Many theoretical approaches have been investigating ecological interactions, such as competition, as potential drivers of diversification. Classical consumer-resource models predict that the number of coexisting species should not exceed the number of distinct resources, a phenomenon known as the competitive exclusion principle. It has recently been argued that including physiological tradeoffs in consumer-resource models can lead to violations of this principle and to ecological coexistence of very high numbers of species. Here we show that these results crucially depend on the functional form of the tradeoff. We investigate the evolutionary dynamics of resource use constrained by tradeoffs and show that if the tradeoffs are non-linear, the system either does not diversify, or diversifies into a number of coexisting species that does not exceed the number of resources. In particular, very high diversity can only be observed for linear tradeoffs.

Ecological Theory and the Superfluous Niche

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
James Justus ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Exclusion ◽  
Ecological Theory ◽  
Character Displacement ◽  
Exclusion Principle ◽  
Limiting Similarity ◽  
Competitive Exclusion Principle ◽  
Ecological Equivalence

Perhaps no concept has been thought more important to ecological theorizing than the niche. Without it, technically sophisticated and well-regarded accounts of character displacement, ecological equivalence, limiting similarity, and others would seemingly never have been developed. The niche is also widely considered the centerpiece of the best candidate for a distinctively ecological law, the competitive exclusion principle. But the incongruous array and imprecise character of proposed definitions of the concept square poorly with its apparent scientific centrality. I argue this definitional diversity and imprecision reflects a problematic conceptual indeterminacy that challenges its putative indispensability in ecology.

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