A process-based metacommunity framework linking local and regional scale community ecology.

ABSTRACT: The metacommunity concept has the potential to integrate local and regional dynamics within a general community ecology framework. To this end, the concept must move beyond the discrete archetypes that have largely defined it (e.g. neutral vs. species sorting) and better incorporate local scale species interactions and coexistence mechanisms. Here, we present a fundamental reconception of the framework that explicitly links local coexistence theory to the spatial processes inherent to metacommunity theory, allowing for a continuous range of competitive community dynamics. These dynamics emerge from the three underlying processes that shape ecological communities: (1) density-independent responses to abiotic conditions, (2) density-dependent biotic interactions and (3) dispersal. Stochastic

SUBMITTER: Thompson PL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7496463 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature