Competition, disturbance and local diversity patterns of substratum-bound clonal organisms: A simulation

Abstract

We have conducted a series of simulations in order to compare the relative diversification effects of disturbance and intransitive (i.e., A > B, B > C but C > A) competition on a hypothetical set of clonal organisms. We found large significant differences between these two effects only when disturbance levels were low or absent. We suggest that natural assemblages should be examined for the frequency of intransitive interactions along disturbance gradients in order to assess the significance of these competitive relationships. We also argue that intransitive competition ought to be incorporated into nonequilibrium disturbance models; diversification effects of disturbance and intransitive competition need not be mutually exclusive.