Towards the integration of niche and network theories

Godoy, Oscar; Bartomeus, Ignasi; Rohr, Rudolf P.; Saavedra, Serguei

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2018.01.007

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Journal article

Towards the integration of niche and network theories

Godoy, Oscar Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS-CSIC) Sevilla, Spain
Bartomeus, Ignasi Estación Biolo? gica de Doñana (EBDCSIC) Sevillea, Spain
Rohr, Rudolf P. Department of Biology ? Ecology and Evolution, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Saavedra, Serguei Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

01.04.2018

Published in:

Trends in Ecology & Evolution. - 2018, vol. 33, no. 4, p. 287–300

English The quest for understanding how species interactions modulate diversity has progressed by theoretical and empirical advances following niche and network theories. Yet, niche studies have been limited to describe coexistence within tropic levels despite incorporating information about multi-trophic interactions. Network approaches could address this limitation, but they have ignored the structure of species interactions within trophic levels. Here we call for the integration of niche and network theories to reach new frontiers of knowledge exploring how interactions within and across trophic levels promote species coexistence. This integration is possible due to the strong parallelisms in the historical development, ecological concepts, and associated mathematical tools of both theories. We provide a guideline to integrate this framework with observational and experimental studies.

Faculty

Faculté des sciences et de médecine

Department

Département de Biologie

Language