Boom-bust population dynamics increase diversity in evolving competitive communities.

ABSTRACT: The processes and mechanisms underlying the origin and maintenance of biological diversity have long been of central importance in ecology and evolution. The competitive exclusion principle states that the number of coexisting species is limited by the number of resources, or by the species' similarity in resource use. Natural systems such as the extreme diversity of unicellular life in the oceans provide counter examples. It is known that mathematical models incorporating population fluctuations can lead to violations of the exclusion principle. Here we use simple eco-evolutionary models to show that a certain type of population dynamics, boom-bust dynamics, can allow for the evolution of much larger amounts of diversity than would be expected with stable equilibrium dynamics. Boom-bust d

SUBMITTER: Doebeli M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8065032 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature