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forum The core–satellite species hypothesis provides a theoretical basis for Grime's classification of dominant, subordinate, and transient species
Author(s) -
Gibson David J.,
Ely Joseph S.,
Collins Scott L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.452
H-Index - 181
eISSN - 1365-2745
pISSN - 0022-0477
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2745.1999.00424.x
Subject(s) - ecology , ecosystem , function (biology) , diversity (politics) , biology , geography , sociology , evolutionary biology , anthropology
Grime (1998) recently made a welcome attempt to provide a link between studies of plant diversity and ecosystem function. He suggested that categories of species that he referred to as dominants, subordinates, and transients have diering, but important, roles in ecosystems (referred from here on as the DST classi®cation). Grime suggests that many characteristics of ecosystem function are disproportionately in ̄uenced by traits of the dominant species, but that subordinates and transients also may play critical, although sometimes temporary, roles in determining ecosystem function. We believe that incorporating dynamics into the role that diversity may play in ecosystem processes is an important conceptual advancement. Our goal in this Forum article is to enlarge Grime's DST classi®cation by linking it to an existing model of community dynamics. Our hope is that this will promote the development of a broader, more generalized theory linking vegetation structure, function and dynamics. Grime's (1998) DST classi®cation explicitly invokes temporal dynamics into the relationship between diversity and function. Yet in his essay, Grime (1998) makes no mention of any dynamic models in the development of his DST classi®cation, e.g. island biogeography theory (MacArthur & Wilson 1967), patch dynamics (Pickett & White 1985), carousel model (van der Maarel & Sykes 1993). We believe that one model in particular, the core±satellite species hypothesis (Hanski 1982a, 1991), provides an important theoretical basis for Grime's DST classi®cation. It is our purpose in this Forum article to explore the similarities between the DST classi®cation and the core±satellite species hypothesis (referred to from here on as the CSS hypothesis) and bring out some important dierences. We believe that unifying these ideas has much to oer plant ecology, and that in combination, these models have important rami®cations for the conservation issues raised by Grime.