Species interactions and diversity: a unified framework using Hill
numbers
- William Godsoe,
- Rua Murray,
- Ryosuke Iritani
Rua Murray
University of Canterbury College of Engineering
Author ProfileAbstract
Biodiversity describes the variety of organisms on planet earth.
Ecologists have long hoped for a synthesis between analyses of
biodiversity and analyses of biotic interactions among species, such as
predation, competition, and mutualism. However, it is often unclear how
to connect details of these interactions with complex modern analyses of
biodiversity. Using methods pioneered in studies of
ecological-evolutionary dynamics, we link biotic interactions and
changes in measures of biodiversity such as Hill numbers. We show that
analyses of biodiversity obscure details about biotic interactions. For
example, identical changes in biodiversity can arise from predation,
competition or mutualism, locally or across a metacommunity. Our
approach indicates that traditional models of community assembly miss
key facets of diversity change. Instead, we suggest that analyses of
diversity change should focus on partitions, which measure mechanisms
that directly shape changes in diversity, notably relative fitness and
immigration, rather than traditional analyses of biotic interactions.