Opposing effects of competitive exclusion on the phylogenetic structure of communities

Margaret M. Mayfield, Jonathan M. Levine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1188 Scopus citations

Abstract

Though many processes are involved in determining which species coexist and assemble into communities, competition is among the best studied. One hypothesis about competition's contribution to community assembly is that more closely related species are less likely to coexist. Though empirical evidence for this hypothesis is mixed, it remains a common assumption in certain phylogenetic approaches for inferring the effects of environmental filtering and competitive exclusion. Here, we relate modern coexistence theory to phylogenetic community assembly approaches to refine expectations for how species relatedness influences the outcome of competition. We argue that two types of species differences determine competitive exclusion with opposing effects on relatedness patterns. Importantly, this means that competition can sometimes eliminate more different and less related taxa, even when the traits underlying the relevant species differences are phylogenetically conserved. Our argument leads to a reinterpretation of the assembly processes inferred from community phylogenetic structure.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1085-1093
Number of pages9
JournalEcology letters
Volume13
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2010
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Keywords

  • Coexistence
  • Community assembly
  • Competitive ability/fitness differences
  • Competitive exclusion
  • Niches
  • Phylogenetics
  • Regional species pool

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