A Metabolic Perspective of Stochastic Community Assembly

Victor S Saito; Daniel M Perkins; Pavel Kratina

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2021.01.003

A Metabolic Perspective of Stochastic Community Assembly

Trends Ecol Evol. 2021 Apr;36(4):280-283. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.01.003. Epub 2021 Feb 1.

Authors

Victor S Saito¹, Daniel M Perkins², Pavel Kratina³

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Sciences Department, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos/SP 13565-905, Brazil. Electronic address: victor.saito@gmail.com.
² Life Sciences Department, University of Roehampton, London SW15 4JD, UK.
³ School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK.

PMID: 33536149
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.01.003

Abstract

Metabolism controls the pace of life, driving major ecological patterns. We propose that the scaling of metabolism with temperature influences neutral processes of community assembly by controlling population dynamics independently of species identities. This perspective provides new insights into the prevalence of niche and neutral processes through universal energetic constraints.

Keywords: food webs; macroecology; metabolic scaling; neutral processes; niche processes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Ecosystem*
Models, Biological*
Population Dynamics
Stochastic Processes