Research and News
Featured Research:
Global quantification of competitive ability along resource gradients
How do species co-exist when the level of resources changes? A team of four IBEEM Postdoctoral Fellows – Alejandra Martínez Blancas, Laís Petri, Ashwini Ramesh, and Amar Deep Tiwari – are seeking to answer this question. Using systematic meta-analyses, their work aims to uncover insights into the influence of resources on competition and biodiversity which will contribute to our fundamental understanding of the factors shaping the structure of ecological communities.
A Summary of their Research
The maintenance of species diversity, especially in the face of species extinction via climate change has long been a central question in global biodiversity. Loss of species implies that climate change undermines mechanisms of species coexistence, threatening food webs and destabilizing ecosystem function. Thus, to best anticipate such harm, we need fundamental-level insight into mechanisms governing species coexistence in a changing world. One prominent mechanism centers on the role of resource gradients in facilitating species coexistence. Competition for resources is a process by which an individual of a species captures resources (e.g., minerals, light, or water) to limit its competitors. The outcome of competition across resource gradients, a classically studied community assembly mechanism, is a prominent factor promoting coexistence and, consequently, diversity. If resource competition is indeed fundamental to species coexistence, should there not be universal mechanisms governing these interactions across ecosystems? Despite resource competition serving as a fundamental principle governing species coexistence, a comprehensive understanding of resource-biodiversity relationships remain elusive. Here, we synthesize how species competition shifts across resource gradients in a changing world across multiple ecosystems. Our approach integrates food web theory, meta-analysis, data-fitting, and climate mapping to propose unifying community assembly rules in a changing world. Additionally, to contextualize the science and its representation, we quantify both geographical bias and the extent of parachute science serves as preliminary steps toward a more inclusive and equitable science.
A Summary of their Research
The maintenance of species diversity, especially in the face of species extinction via climate change has long been a central question in global biodiversity. Loss of species implies that climate change undermines mechanisms of species coexistence, threatening food webs and destabilizing ecosystem function. Thus, to best anticipate such harm, we need fundamental-level insight into mechanisms governing species coexistence in a changing world. One prominent mechanism centers on the role of resource gradients in facilitating species coexistence. Competition for resources is a process by which an individual of a species captures resources (e.g., minerals, light, or water) to limit its competitors. The outcome of competition across resource gradients, a classically studied community assembly mechanism, is a prominent factor promoting coexistence and, consequently, diversity. If resource competition is indeed fundamental to species coexistence, should there not be universal mechanisms governing these interactions across ecosystems? Despite resource competition serving as a fundamental principle governing species coexistence, a comprehensive understanding of resource-biodiversity relationships remain elusive. Here, we synthesize how species competition shifts across resource gradients in a changing world across multiple ecosystems. Our approach integrates food web theory, meta-analysis, data-fitting, and climate mapping to propose unifying community assembly rules in a changing world. Additionally, to contextualize the science and its representation, we quantify both geographical bias and the extent of parachute science serves as preliminary steps toward a more inclusive and equitable science.
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Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
ibeem@msu.edu
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
ibeem@msu.edu