Experimental demonstration of the importance of competition under disturbance.

ABSTRACT: Ecologists have long recognized the roles of competition and disturbance in shaping ecological communities, and the combinatorial effects of these two factors have been the subject of substantial ecological research. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether competition remains as an important structuring force in habitats strongly influenced by disturbance. The conventional belief remains that the importance of competition decreases with increasing disturbance, but limited theory suggests otherwise. Using protist communities established in laboratory microcosms, we demonstrate that disturbance does not diminish the importance of competition. Interspecific competition significantly increased rates of species extinction over a broad disturbance gradient, and increasing disturbance intensiti

SUBMITTER: Violle C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2919955 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature