Biology 3445F Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Metacommunity, Explained Variation

• School: Western University
• Department: Biology
• Course: Biology 3445F
• Professor: Zoe Lindo

Document Summary

Metacommunity set of local communities linked by dispersal of multiple, potentially interacting species. Metacommunity theory recognizes different structuring forces at different spatial scales. Local controls environmental conditions and species interactions. Regional controls dispersal and landscape-scale extinction dynamics. Different assumptions regarding how species respond to environmental and spatial gradients. Patch dynamics indicative of weak regional and local effects. Neutral strong regional and weak local effects. Species sorting strong local effects & weak regional effects. Mass effects strong local and regional effects. [e|s] environmental variation remaining after removing that shared with spatial variation. [s|e] spatial variation remaining after removing that shared with environmental variation. Patches are homogeneous: all patches assumed identical. Colonization is balanced against extinction due to interspecific interactions: species differ in niche such that trade-off b/n competitive and colonization abilities. Regional dispersal occurs at a slower rate than local dynamics. Patches are heterogeneous: local enviro filters and species interactions.