Clumped versus scattered: how does the spatial correlation of disturbance events affect biodiversity?

Authored by Volker Grimm, Andreas Huth, Karin Johst, Thomas Banitz

Date Published: 2008

DOI: 10.1007/s12080-008-0023-3

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: ODD

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

In this study, we systematically explore the effects of rate and spatial correlation (level of clumping) of disturbance events on a community of sessile species differing in their life history traits. A spatially explicit individual-based model shows that long-term coexistence is very sensitive to spatial correlation when the trade-off in life history traits includes differences in dispersal distances. Highest biodiversity emerges at highly correlated disturbances of intermediate rates. Diversity peaks shift to larger rates when clumping decreases. Scattered disturbances lead to competitive exclusion. Interestingly, we observed additional peaks in the diversity-disturbance curves at certain levels of clumping. Thus, subject to the differences in life history traits, particular combinations of disturbance rate and spatial correlation may enable subsets of species to coexist, which opens new possibilities for explaining diversity. Our results suggest that observation of high biodiversity under spatially correlated disturbances points to a competition-colonisation trade-off, which includes dispersal distances.

Tags

Competition models Diversity Dispersal Communities Intermediate disturbance Colonization trade-off Species coexistence Hypothesis Patch dynamics