The effect of density dependence on community structure

doi:10.1016/0304-3800(95)00209-X

Ecological Modelling

Volume 93, Issues 1–3, 16 December 1996, Pages 33-42

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(95)00209-X Get rights and content

Abstract

The effect of population density controls on the relationship between stability and species richness was explored by constructing Monte Carlo community models with density dependent population controls. Simulated communities with more initial species exhibit proportionally fewer extinctions. This form of stability is greatest at low interaction strengths and intermediate connectivities. Stability appeared to be related to the fact that species with more interactions were less likely to be driven to extinction by negative interactions. Species with mutualistic (+ / +) and commensal (0/ +) interactions survive at greater than expected proportions, while those with relatively more competitive (− / −) and amensal (0 / −) interactions tend toward extinction. Incorporation of density dependent population control thus leads to features that previous community models have not exhibited. It is suggested that communities with many of the populations controlled by abiotic factors in a density dependent fashion should exhibit increased stability with more species.

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¹: Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.

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The effect of density dependence on community structure

Abstract

Ecol. Modell.

J. Theor. Biol.

Ecol. Model.

TREE

Toward a Unified Ecology

On the conditions for permanence of species in ecological communities

Am. Nat.

The ecology of mutualism

Ann. Rev. Ecol. System.

Community Food Webs

Positive feedback in natural Systems

Stability and connectance in food web models

Ecology

Community structure and selection for positive or negative species interactions

Oikos

Community interactions between the filamentous algal Cladophora glomerata (L.) Küetzing, its epiphytes, and epiphyte grazers

Oecologia

The Ecology of Invasion by Animals and Plants

Stability increases with diversity in plant communities: empirical evidence from the 1988 Yellowstone drought

Oikos

Connectance of large dynamic (cybernetic) systems: critical values for stability

Nature (London)

The theory of diversity-stability relationships in ecology

Quart. Rev. Biol.

Self-assembling food webs: a global viewpoint of coexistence of species in Lotka—Volterra communities

Ecology

Matrices and graphs: Stability Problems in Mathematical Ecology