NCEAS Project 12055

Using phylogenetic information to predict the relative importance of equalizing versus stabilizing mechanisms on species coexistence

• Cadotte, Marc

Abstract
Understanding species coexistence is crucial to understanding the processes that structure communities. Niche mechanisms that promote coexistence result from trait differences that reduce niche overlap and thus reduce competitive interactions allowing stable coexistence. The relative importance of niche differentiation versus neutral mechanisms for driving community patterns is hotly debated in ecology. It is likely that in natural communities, coexistence mechanisms include both processes, which are determined by how similar or different two species are to one another. The degree of differentiation, or perhaps evolutionary distance, may be a surrogate to understand which species can coexist and under what mechanism. In this research project I will be analyzing published competition experiments to see if phylogenetic relatedness can predict which species are able to coexist and the mechanism of coexistence.

• Overview
• Ecology Core Program
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