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Coexistence of plant species with similar niches

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Abstract

In the context of a simple mathematical model, we derive several mechanisms whereby plant species can coexist in a community without differing in their trophic niches (their relations with habitats, resources and exploiters). The model is based on the dynamics of species turnover in microsites, and incorporates localized competition, non-uniform seed dispersal and aspects of spatiotemporal environmental heterogeneity. These factors, which are not included in most standard competition models, allow stable coexistence of trophically equivalent species due to:

  1. (a)

    Differences in life-history ‘strategy’.

  2. (b)

    Input of seeds from neaby habitats (spatial Mass Effect).

  3. (c)

    Differences in demographic responses to environmental fluctuations (temporal Mass Effect).

  4. (d)

    Turnover in species composition between different habitat patches.

Quantitative descriptive studies are presented, demonstrating the occurrence of vegetation patterns predicted on the basis of the hypothesized mechanisms. We also review previously proposed mechanisms that would allow trophically equivalent species to coexist, and explore the theoretical and methodological implications of recognizing coexistence mechanisms independent of trophic niche differentiation. In particular, we propose that these mechanisms contribute to the dissimilarity of within-community replicate samples and the maintenance of many rare species in plant communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    A. Shmida

  2. Department of Mathematics and Graduate Program in Ecology, University of Tennessee, 37996, Knoxville, TN, U.S.A.

    S. Ellner

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Nomenclature follows Zohary & Feinbrun-Dothan(1966→).

Acknowledgements. We are grateful to D. Cohen, R. H. Whittaker, and S. A. Levin for establishing the Cornell/Hebrew University association that enabled us to work together, and for discussions of the ideas presented here. Innumerable staff from the field schools of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel assisted with the field work. We have freely incorporated ideas and improvements suggested by volunteer reviewers, including I. Noy-Meir, S. Levin, M. Rosenzweig, P. Chesson, R. K. Peet, and especially P. J. Grubb. Support came in part from NSF Grant DEB 78-09340 to R. H. Whittaker (AS), NSF Grants MCS 77-01076 and MCS 80-01618 to S. a. Levin (SPF) and NSF and Lady Davis Trust (Jerusalem) Graduate Fellowships to SPE. Typing was done graciously under pressure by B. Marks and C. Blair; the figures are by M. Shmida and W. Brown. This paper is dedicated to the memory of R. H. Whittaker.

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Shmida, A., Ellner, S. Coexistence of plant species with similar niches. Vegetatio 58, 29–55 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00044894

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