Lakes are great examples for island-like Habitats. I Photo: Catherine Perez Vega, IGB
Metacommunity ecology looks at how local communities in specific patches are connected to each other in metacommunities and how the driving factors act on the different spatial scales. An international team with Prof. Luc De Meester developed a theoretical framework to explore how the basic local and regional processes that can structure local communities – selection, dispersal and chance effects – interact to determine metacommunity patterns.
Importantly, selection also involves the presence of other species, and using a novel modelling approach the team investigated how variation in competitive interactions among species can impact metacommunity structure. Their results show that the different ways competition can play out can dramatically influence metacommunity patterns.
“Many models include competition, but assume that competition is equal across all species. This model shows that relaxing this assumption has an enormous impact on metacommunity structure. The results are very inspiring, and no doubt this model will only be the first step to explore the variability in species interactions, dispersal strategies and niche shape characteristics on metacommunity structure”, says Luc De Meester
In nature there is high inter- and intraspecific trait variation and this can greatly influence community dynamics. Building on the developed framework would further advance the understanding of natural communities in a dynamic and changing world, particularly if researchers challenge their predictions through empirical tests in a range of natural systems.
