Journal
ECOSPHERE
Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3359
Keywords
community ecology; hypothesis; invasion ecology; model; process; theory
Categories
Funding
- South African Research Chairs Initiative (NRF) [89967]
- DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
- BiodivERsA-Belmont Forum Project Alien Scenarios (FWF) [I 4011-B32]
- ARC [DP200101680]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [JE 288/9-2]
- AlienScenarios BiodivERsA-Belmont Forum project (BMBF) [01LC1807B]
- German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig - German Research Foundation [FZT 118]
- Invasion Biology AXA Chair
- AlienScenarios BiodivERsA-Belmont Forum project
- NRF [119125, 118591]
- Oppenheimer Memorial Trust [18576/03]
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Community and invasion ecology have largely developed independently, but there is overlap in processes captured by different models. A process-based framework has been proposed to synthesize information across these two fields and enable comparison, revealing lack of coherence and historical dominance of interaction processes. Successful integration of the two fields could advance predictive ecology in a rapidly changing world.
Community and invasion ecology have mostly grown independently. There is substantial overlap in the processes captured by different models in the two fields, and various frameworks have been developed to reduce this redundancy and synthesize information content. Despite broad recognition that community and invasion ecology are interconnected, a process-based framework synthesizing models across these two fields is lacking. Here we review 65 representative community and invasion models and propose a common framework articulated around six processes (dispersal, drift, abiotic interactions, within-guild interactions, cross-guild interactions, and genetic changes). The framework is designed to synthesize the content of the two fields, provide a general perspective on their development, and enable their comparison. The application of this framework and of a novel method based on network theory reveals some lack of coherence between the two fields, despite some historical similarities. Community ecology models are characterized by combinations of multiple processes, likely reflecting the search for an overarching theory to explain community assembly and structure, drawing predominantly on interaction processes, but also accounting largely for the other processes. In contrast, most models in invasion ecology invoke fewer processes and focus more on interactions between introduced species and their novel biotic and abiotic environment. The historical dominance of interaction processes and their independent developments in the two fields is also reflected in the lower level of coherence for models involving interactions, compared to models involving dispersal, drift, and genetic changes. It appears that community ecology, with a longer history than invasion ecology, has transitioned from the search for single explanations for patterns observed in nature to investigate how processes may interact mechanistically, thereby generating and testing hypotheses. Our framework paves the way for a similar transition in invasion ecology, to better capture the dynamics of multiple alien species introduced in complex communities. Reciprocally, applying insights from invasion to community ecology will help us understand and predict the future of ecological communities in the Anthropocene, in which human activities are weakening species' natural boundaries. Ultimately, the successful integration of the two fields could advance a predictive ecology that is urgently required in a rapidly changing world.
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