Different but equal: the implausible assumption at the heart of neutral theory.

ABSTRACT: 1. The core assumption of neutral theory is that all individuals in a community have equal fitness regardless of species, and regardless of the species composition of the community. But, real communities consist of species exhibiting large trait differences; hence these differences must be subject to perfect fitness-equalizing trade-offs for neutrality to hold. 2. Here we explain that perfect equalizing trade-offs are extremely unlikely to occur in reality, because equality of fitness among species is destroyed by: (i) any deviation in the functional form of the trade-off away from the one special form that gives equal fitness; (ii) spatial or temporal variation in performance; (iii) random species differences in performance. 3. In the absence of the density-dependent processes stressed by

SUBMITTER: Purves DW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3025117 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature