1932

Abstract

The focus of most ideas on diversity maintenance is species coexistence, which may be stable or unstable. Stable coexistence can be quantified by the long-term rates at which community members recover from low density. Quantification shows that coexistence mechanisms function in two major ways: They may be (a) because they tend to minimize average fitness differences between species, or (b) because they tend to increase negative intraspecific interactions relative to negative interspecific interactions. Stabilizing mechanisms are essential for species coexistence and include traditional mechanisms such as resource partitioning and frequency-dependent predation, as well as mechanisms that depend on fluctuations in population densities and environmental factors in space and time. Equalizing mechanisms contribute to stable coexistence because they reduce large average fitness inequalities which might negate the effects of stabilizing mechanisms. Models of unstable coexitence, in which species diversity slowly decays over time, have focused almost exclusively on equalizing mechanisms. These models would be more robust if they also included stabilizing mechanisms, which arise in many and varied ways but need not be adequate for full stability of a system. Models of unstable coexistence invite a broader view of diversity maintenance incorporating species turnover.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.343
2000-11-01
2024-12-14
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.343
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.343
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error