Biodiversity and species interactions: extending Lotka-Volterra community theory
Författare
Summary, in English
A new analysis of the nearly century-old Lotka-Volterra theory allows us to link species interactions to biodiversity patterns, including: species abundance distributions, estimates of total community size, patterns of community invasibility, and predicted responses to disturbance. Based on a few restrictive assumptions about species interactions, our calculations require only that the community is sufficiently large to allow a mean-field approximation. We develop this analysis to show how an initial assemblage of species with varying interaction strengths is predicted to sort out into the final community based on the species' predicted target densities. The sorting process yields predictions of covarying patterns of species abundance, community size, and species interaction strengths. These predictions can be tested using enrichment experiments, examination of latitudinal and productivity gradients, and features of community assembly.
Publiceringsår
2003
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
944-952
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Ecology Letters
Volym
6
Issue
10
Fulltext
- Available as PDF - 331 kB
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Länkar
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Wiley-Blackwell
Ämne
- Biological Sciences
Status
Published
Forskningsgrupp
- Theoretical Population Ecology and Evolution Group
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1461-023X