4.8 Article

Translucent windows: how uncertainty in competitive interactions impacts detection of community pattern

Journal

ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 21, Issue 6, Pages 826-835

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12946

Keywords

Community structure; competition; functional traits; noise; self- organized similarity; species clusters; trait pattern; uncertainty

Categories

Funding

  1. Simons Foundation Grant [376199]
  2. McDonnell Foundation Grant [220020439]
  3. National Science Foundation Grant [1038678]
  4. Advancing Theory in Biology program
  5. Danish National Research Foundation of Center of Macroecology, Evolution and Climate [DNRF96]
  6. Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley

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Traits can provide a window into the mechanisms that maintain coexistence among competing species. Recent theory suggests that competitive interactions will lead to groups, or clusters, of species with similar traits. However, theoretical predictions typically assume complete knowledge of the map between competition and measured traits. These assumptions limit the plausible application of these patterns for inferring competitive interactions in nature. Here, we relax these restrictions and find that the clustering pattern is robust to contributions of unknown or unobserved niche axes. However, it may not be visible unless measured traits are close proxies for niche strategies. We conclude that patterns along single niche axes may reveal properties of interspecific competition in nature, but detecting these patterns requires natural history expertise firmly tying traits to niches.

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