Chapter 4 - Effects of Metacommunity Networks on Local Community Structures: From Theoretical Predictions to Empirical Evaluations

Abstract

Although empirical support for it is at an early stage of development, metacommunity theory has become a mainstream component in ecological thinking. Four paradigms encapsulate proposed metacommunity mechanisms: (1) colonization–competition trade-off in “patch dynamics,” (2) community-dependent species–environment fitting in “species sorting,” (3) increase in local persistence through immigration from more successful populations in the “mass effect,” and (4) trait-independent assemblages of “neutral processes.” Using metapopulation models, we highlight the wide range of patterns predicted by different mechanisms. Neutral and mass effects should be enhanced by dispersal, thereby constraining the conditions for species sorting. The relative effects of dispersal on dominant and subordinate species determine the weakening or strengthening of patch dynamics.