Niche-based process and neutral dynamics emerge the per capita
ecological difference and equivalence among species at different
spatio-temporal-environmental scales
Abstract
Reconciling niche-based process and neutral dynamics in a portion of an
infinite system, the regional species pool may be already not free
parameter, and the divergent ecological-evolutionary mechanisms may
operate consistently. The individual-based model was implemented in the
two-dimensional grid with periodic boundary condition. The model was
explored using a fixed speciation rate, and a range of system sizes,
dispersal rates, environmental structures and initial conditions of
regional species pool. The model communities in the center of system had
a fixed population size, and approximated from an area encompassing
independent biogeographic units to an area packed in a biogeographic
unit with open boundary conditions, and presented the three
environmental structures; four humps, linear and random. Across
scenarios, the number of guilds in system achieved first to a stationary
state; then, the species richness converged eventually to a dynamical
equilibrium through speciation-extinction balance. In simulations, the
per capita ecological difference among species only contributed to the
probabilities of immigration success, so the weighted lottery process
was more efficient and immediate at higher dispersal rates. The increase
of functional redundancy in model communities suggested that the
relative role of neutral dynamics increased in an area encompassing
independent biogeographic units. The variation partitioning based on
canonical analysis inferred that not only the neutral dynamics among the
species of single guild, but also the competition-colonization trade-off
among the species of more than two guilds with similar environmental
optimum and different levels of specialization operated in the spatial
structures found within and among patchy habitats. Ecologist to
disentangle the influence of alternative processes must shift focus from
the contribution of local competitions and regional dispersals to
detecting the spatio-temporal-environmental scales on which the per
capita ecological difference and equivalence among species are emerged
through divergent ecological-evolutionary mechanisms.