Premium
Increasing resource specialization among competitors shifts control of diversity from local to spatial processes
Author(s) -
Frank Steven A.,
Amarasekare Priyanga
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1461-0248.1998.0007a.x
Subject(s) - ecology , extinction (optical mineralogy) , competitor analysis , local extinction , diversity (politics) , biology , resource (disambiguation) , colonization , evolutionary dynamics , competition (biology) , dynamics (music) , economic geography , biological dispersal , geography , demography , economics , computer science , sociology , paleontology , population , computer network , management , anthropology , pedagogy
We argue that an increase in the number of specialized consumers can shift the control of ecological dynamics from local to spatial processes. When there are only a few specialized types, local dynamics maintains most types within each patch. As the number of types increases, the probability of local extinction rises. Subsequent colonizations perturb local dynamics, setting off another round of extinctions and the potential for later recolonization. Global processes of colonization and extinction reduce local diversity and increase differentiation among patches. We draw an analogy between the specificity of host‐parasite genetics and the specificity of consumer–resource pairs.