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Browsing by Subject "coexistence"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Constraints and tradeoffs: Toward a predictive, mechanism-based understanding of ecological communities
    (2017-08) Clark, Adam
    It is easy to forget how far ecology has come in a very short time. Less than two decades ago, it was unclear whether predictive models of species-level dynamics in diverse ecological communities would ever be possible. Today, an abundance of methods can accurately forecast these dynamics, driven by explosive growth in the availability of data and modern analytical tools. However, most of these methods rely on matching patterns from historical dynamics to current trends. Thus, while predictions have become much easier, understanding why behavior occurs – and extrapolating predictions to novel circumstances – remains elusive. Here, we apply theoretical insights from tradeoffs to better understand how species in ecological communities assemble and coexist. Tradeoffs describe physiological and ecological constraints that limit the traits and roles of individual organisms. These constraints therefore contain substantial information about species ecological and evolutionary histories, and how they are likely to interact with one another and their environments. We show that information contained in tradeoffs can be used to identify important mechanisms governing community dynamics, and to constrain viable parameter space in otherwise intractable models. These methods could substantially improve mechanism-based predictions in diverse communities, resulting in better understanding of how these complex systems function, and better extrapolations of predictions under novel circumstances.
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    Geographic range predicts photosynthetic and growth response to warming in co-occurring tree species
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2015) Reich, Peter B; Sendall, Kerrie M; Rice, Karen; Rich, Roy L; Stefanski, Artur; Hobbie, Sarah E; Montgomery, Rebecca A
    Populations near the warm edge of species ranges may be particularly sensitive to climate change, but lack of empirical data on responses to warming represents a key gap in understanding future range dynamics. Herein we document the impacts of experimental warming on the performance of 11 boreal and temperate forest species that co-occur at the ecotone between these biomes in North America. We measured in situ net photosynthetic carbon gain and growth of >4,100 juvenile trees from local seed sources exposed to a chamberless warming experiment that used infrared heat lamps and soil heating cables to elevate temperatures by +3.4 °C above- and belowground for three growing seasons across 48 plots at two sites. In these ecologically realistic field settings, species growing nearest their warm range limit exhibited reductions in net photosynthesis and growth, whereas species near their cold range limit responded positively to warming. Differences among species in their three-year growth responses to warming parallel their photosynthetic responses to warming, suggesting that leaf-level responses may scale to whole-plant performance. These responses are consistent with the hypothesis, from observational data and models, that warming will reduce the competitive ability of currently dominant southern boreal species compared with locally rarer co-occurring species that dominate warmer neighbouring regions. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.