Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ecological Drift And Competitive Interactions Predict Unique Patterns In Temporal Fluctuations Of Population Size, Werner Ulrich, Radosław Puchałka, Marcin Koprowski, Giovanni Strona, Nicholas J. Gotelli

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of higher-order competitive interactions in stabilizing population dynamics in multi-species communities. But how does the structure of competitive hierarchies affect population dynamics and extinction processes? We tackled this important question by using spatially explicit simulations of ecological drift (10 species in a homogeneous landscape of 64 patches) in which birth rates were influenced by interspecific competition. Specifically, we examined how transitive (linear pecking orders) and intransitive (pecking orders with loops) competitive hierarchies affected extinction rates and population dynamics in simulated communities through time. In comparison to a pure neutral model, an ecological drift model …