Journal ArticleDOI
The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology
Mathew A. Leibold,Marcel Holyoak,Nicolas Mouquet,Nicolas Mouquet,Priyanga Amarasekare,Jonathan M. Chase,Martha F. Hoopes,Robert D. Holt,Jonathan B. Shurin,Richard Law,David Tilman,Michel Loreau,Andrew Gonzalez +12 more
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TLDR
This framework is used to discuss why the metacommunity concept is useful in modifying existing ecological thinking and illustrate this with a number of both theoretical and empirical examples.Abstract:
The metacommunity concept is an important way to think about linkages between different spatial scales in ecology. Here we review current understanding about this concept. We first investigate issues related to its definition as a set of local communities that are linked by dispersal of multiple potentially interacting species. We then identify four paradigms for metacommunities: the patch-dynamic view, the species-sorting view, the mass effects view and the neutral view, that each emphasizes different processes of potential importance in metacommunities. These have somewhat distinct intellectual histories and we discuss elements related to their potential future synthesis. We then use this framework to discuss why the concept is useful in modifying existing ecological thinking and illustrate this with a number of both theoretical and empirical examples. As ecologists strive to understand increasingly complex mechanisms and strive to work across multiple scales of spatio-temporal organization, concepts like the metacommunity can provide important insights that frequently contrast with those that would be obtained with more conventional approaches based on local communities alone.read more
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The Theory of Island Biogeography
TL;DR: Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols used xiii 1.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rebuilding community ecology from functional traits.
TL;DR: It is asserted that community ecology should return to an emphasis on four themes that are tied together by a two-step process: how the fundamental niche is governed by functional traits within the context of abiotic environmental gradients; and how the interaction between traits and fundamental niches maps onto the realized niche in the context a biotic interaction milieu.
Journal ArticleDOI
Synchronization in complex networks
Alex Arenas,Alex Arenas,Albert Díaz-Guilera,Albert Díaz-Guilera,Jürgen Kurths,Jürgen Kurths,Yamir Moreno,Changsong Zhou +7 more
TL;DR: The advances in the comprehension of synchronization phenomena when oscillating elements are constrained to interact in a complex network topology are reported and the new emergent features coming out from the interplay between the structure and the function of the underlying pattern of connections are overviewed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes - eight hypotheses
Teja Tscharntke,Jason M. Tylianakis,Tatyana A. Rand,Raphael K. Didham,Raphael K. Didham,Raphael K. Didham,Lenore Fahrig,Péter Batáry,Péter Batáry,Janne Bengtsson,Yann Clough,Thomas O. Crist,Carsten F. Dormann,Robert M. Ewers,Jochen Fründ,Robert D. Holt,Andrea Holzschuh,Alexandra M. Klein,David Kleijn,Claire Kremen,Doug A. Landis,William F. Laurance,David B. Lindenmayer,Christoph Scherber,Navjot S. Sodhi,Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter,Carsten Thies,Wim H. van der Putten,Catrin Westphal +28 more
TL;DR: This review uses knowledge gained from human‐modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which it hopes will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services.
Journal ArticleDOI
Beyond biogeographic patterns: processes shaping the microbial landscape
TL;DR: It is proposed that four processes — selection, drift, dispersal and mutation — create and maintain microbial biogeographic patterns on inseparable ecological and evolutionary scales.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Theory of Island Biogeography
TL;DR: Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols used xiii 1.
Book
The Theory of Island Biogeography
TL;DR: The Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201
Journal ArticleDOI
The Problem of Pattern and Scale in Ecology: The Robert H. MacArthur Award Lecture
TL;DR: The second volume in a series on terrestrial and marine comparisons focusing on the temporal complement of the earlier spatial analysis of patchiness and pattern was published by Levin et al..
Book
Resource competition and community structure
TL;DR: This book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities and explores such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.