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DO IMPERFECT TRADE‐OFFS AFFECT THE EXTINCTION DEBT PHENOMENON?
Author(s) -
Banks John E.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1890/0012-9658(1997)078[1597:ditoat]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - extinction debt , extinction (optical mineralogy) , imperfect , economics , phenomenon , debt , imperfect competition , affect (linguistics) , biological dispersal , econometrics , microeconomics , ecology , biology , habitat destruction , macroeconomics , habitat , population , physics , demography , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , quantum mechanics , sociology
A tight trade‐off between competitive and colonization abilities is a key assumption of so‐called “extinction debt models.” This trade‐off implies that species ranked high in competitive ability will be ranked low with respect to dispersal. Although such a strict trade‐off is plausible as a general trend, there are many examples in nature of deviations from perfect trade‐offs. To determine how robust the “extinction debt” phenomenon is to imperfect trade‐off relationships, I reexamined the extinction debt model of Tilman et al. in light of imperfect trade‐offs. Numerically solving a system of differential equations, I found that, although the extinction debt phenomenon is not eliminated by the presence of imperfect trade‐offs, the loss of species occurs earlier (with less habitat destruction) and more linearly than with perfect trade‐offs.