Abstract
The existence of functional biological organization at the level of multi-species communities has long been contested in ecology and evolutionary biology. I found that adding a trophic level to simulated ecological communities enhanced their ability to compete at the community level, increasing the likelihood of one community forcing all or most species in a second community to extinction. Community-level identity emerged within systems of interacting ecological networks, while competitive ability at the community level was enhanced by intense within-community selection pressure. These results suggest a reassessment of the nature of biological organization above the level of species, indicating that the drive toward biological integration, so prominent throughout the history of life, might extend to multi-species communities.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 140-145 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Ecological Complexity |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Dynamical systems
- Ecological organization
- Levels of selection
- Lotka-Volterra
- Metacommunities
- Predator-prey