澳大利亚麦考瑞大学Lynette H. L. Loke团队揭开生态学中从生态位到散布集合的转变。该研究于2023年6月7日在线发表于国际一流学术期刊《自然》。

研究人员表示，生态学的一个核心目标是了解是什么维持了当地群体的物种多样性。经典的生态学理论认为，生态位决定了一个群落中可以共存的最大物种数量，只有在移民非常少的情况下，观察到的物种丰富度才会低于这个最大值。一种新的替代理论认为，生态位决定了共存物种的最低数量，由于持续的移民，观察到的物种的丰富度通常会远远高于这个数字。

研究人员通过对热带潮间带群落的实地实验，对这两种统一的理论进行了区分。研究人员发现，与新理论一致，物种丰富度与移民率的关系在低移民率时稳定在一个低值，而在高移民率时没有达到饱和。这些结果表明，热带潮间带群落具有低的生态位多样性，并且通常处于分散组装的体制中，在这种体制中，移民率高到足以过度填充生态位。来自其他研究的观察数据表明，这些结论可能普遍适用于其他生态体系。这个新实验方法可适用于其他系统，并可作为“生态位检测器”和评估群落是生态位还是散布组合的工具。

附：英文原文

Title: Unveiling the transition from niche to dispersal assembly in ecology

Author: Loke, Lynette H. L., Chisholm, Ryan A.

Issue&Volume: 2023-06-07

Abstract: A central goal in ecology is to understand what maintains species diversity in local communities. Classic ecological theory1,2 posits that niches dictate the maximum number of species that can coexist in a community and that the richness of observed species will be below this maximum only where immigration is very low. A new alternative theory3,4 is that niches, instead, dictate the minimum number of coexisting species and that the richness of observed species will usually be well above this because of ongoing immigration. We conducted an experimental test to discriminate between these two unified theories using a manipulative field experiment with tropical intertidal communities. We found, consistent with the new theory, that the relationship of species richness to immigration rate stabilized at a low value at low immigration rates and did not saturate at high immigration rates. Our results suggest that tropical intertidal communities have low niche diversity and are typically in a dispersal-assembled regime where immigration is high enough to overfill the niches. Observational data from other studies3,5 suggest that these conclusions may generalize to other ecological systems. Our new experimental approach can be adapted for other systems and be used as a ‘niche detector’ and a tool for assessing when communities are niche versus dispersal assembled.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06161-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06161-x