Abstract

A fundamental problem challenging natural scientists is to understand how macroscopic patterns, such as population abundance distributions and element ratios, emerge and are sustained in ecosystems, given that evolution typically operates most strongly at the level of individuals and their genomes. How do such patterns persist in the face of evolutionary innovation? In this paper, we explore this issue through dynamical models of community assembly and metapopulation dynamics in dynamic landscapes, and discuss individual-based approaches to the control of element cycles.

Highlights

  • COMPLEXITY AND LEVELS OF SELECTIONRamón Margalef has been an icon for a generation of ecologists

  • The increase in spacing between species with higher reproductive numbers limits the effect of new species on distant competitors, and provides the assemblage with a ‘structural resiliency’ that resists large-scale changes, even though it fails to resist to the establishment of new invaders

  • Invasion will occur only if the invader is able to persist in the dynamic landscape representing the resident community

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Summary

Community assembly and the emergence of ecosystem pattern*

SUMMARY: A fundamental problem challenging natural scientists is to understand how macroscopic patterns, such as population abundance distributions and element ratios, emerge and are sustained in ecosystems, given that evolution typically operates most strongly at the level of individuals and their genomes. How do such patterns persist in the face of evolutionary innovation? We explore this issue through dynamical models of community assembly and metapopulation dynamics in dynamic landscapes, and discuss individual-based approaches to the control of element cycles

COMPLEXITY AND LEVELS OF SELECTION
Hierarchical competition on landscapes
LANDSCAPES dp
Metapopulation persistence in dynamic landscapes
The resident community as a dynamical landscape
Community invasibility as species persistence in dynamic landscapes
The two species case
Relaxing the hierarchy
RESOURSE TRANSFORMATION NETWORKS
The role of community structure in shaping ecosystem patterns

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