Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Neutral theory assumes all species and individuals in a community are ecologically equivalent. This controversial hypothesis has been tested across many taxonomic groups and environmental contexts, and successfully predicts species abundance distributions across multiple high-diversity communities. However, it has been critiqued for its failure to predict a broader range of community properties, particularly regarding community dynamics from generational to geological timescales. Moreover, it is unclear whether neutrality can ever be a true description of a community given the ubiquity of interspecific differences, which presumably lead to ecological inequivalences. Here we derive analytical predictions for when and why non-neutral communities of consumers and resources may present neutral-like outcomes, which we verify using numerical simulations. Our results, which span both static and dynamical community properties, demonstrate the limitations of summarizing distributions to detect non-neutrality, and provide a potential explanation for the successes of neutral theory as a description of macroecological pattern. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2020 | 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008102 | PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY |
DocType | Volume | Issue |
Journal | 16 | 7 |
ISSN | Citations | PageRank |
1553-734X | 0 | 0.34 |
References | Authors | |
0 | 3 | |
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael D'Andrea | 1 | 0 | 0.68 |
| Theo Gibbs | 2 | 0 | 0.34 |
| James P. O'Dwyer | 3 | 3 | 0.75 |