Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Habitat loss alters effects of intransitive higher-order competition on biodiversity: a new metapopulation framework

Li, Yinglin, Bearup, Daniel, Liao, Jinbao (2020) Habitat loss alters effects of intransitive higher-order competition on biodiversity: a new metapopulation framework. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287 (1940). ISSN 0962-8452. E-ISSN 1471-2954. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1571) (KAR id:84002)

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that intransitive competition, as opposed to hierarchical competition, allow more species to coexist. Furthermore, it is recognized that the prevalent paradigm, which assumes that species interactions are exclusively pairwise, may be insufficient. More importantly, whether and how habitat loss, a key driver of biodiversity loss, can alter these complex competition structures and therefore species coexistence remain unclear. We thus present a new simple yet comprehensive metapopulation framework which can account for any competition pattern and more complex higher-order interactions (HOIs) among species. We find that competitive intransitivity increases community diversity and that HOIs generally enhance this effect. Essentially, intransitivity promotes species richness by preventing the dominance of a few species unlike hierarchical competition, while HOIs facilitate species coexistence through stabilizing community fluctuations. However, variation in species vital rates and habitat loss can weaken or even reverse such higher-order effects, as their interaction can lead to a more rapid decline in competitive intransitivity under HOIs. Thus, it is essential to correctly identify the most appropriate interaction model for a given system before models are used to inform conservation efforts. Overall, our simple model framework provides a more parsimonious explanation for biodiversity maintenance than existing theory.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1571
Uncontrolled keywords: habitat loss, higher-order interactions, intransitive competition, metapopulation model, pairwise competition, site-occupancy dynamics
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Depositing User: Daniel Bearup
Date Deposited: 09 Nov 2020 14:52 UTC
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2022 06:33 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/84002 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.