Maintenance of Functional Diversity by Self-Organized Pattern Formation

我们最近描述了一种新的机制，支持功能多样性的metacompatibility，建立在自组织模式的形成。这一过程导致物种及其资源的空间异质分布的出现，这仅仅是由物种的摄食相互作用及其在空间中的运动的相互作用引起的。自组织形成的空间格局是已知的，从各种不同的生态系统，但到目前为止，很少有人知道这些模式如何影响社区的多样性。使用一个模型的通用元食物网与不同的社区的自养生物（植物或藻类），我们已经表明，新兴的模式，在丰富的物种和它们的资源创建本地不同的选择压力的功能性状的自养生物。这导致生物量性状反馈，与没有自组织模式形成的情况相比，增加了自养生物的功能多样性（以功能性状分布的宽度来衡量）十倍。这种多样性的增加是显著的，因为它允许自养生物群落不断适应环境条件的潜在变化。然而，为了便于详细了解这一机制，支持多样性，中央模型的设置，如空间布局的栖息地补丁或整个食物链的生物多样性一直故意保持非常简单。因此，本建议的主要目标是通过进一步沿着三个重要的复杂性轴发展模型，建立所描述的基本机制的一般性和生态意义。首先，计划确定自组织图案形成可以在现实中支持功能多样性的条件（即，大而复杂的）生境斑块网络，并评估这些斑块如何受到人为干扰（如生境丧失）的影响。然后，我们将继续探讨无处不在的环境异质性之间的相互作用，这本身已经创造了不同的选择压力的功能性状，和维护功能多样性的自组织模式的形成。最后，我们将调查的基本机制，以支持多营养功能多样性的潜力，通过扩展模型，包括不同的猎物和捕食者社区的共同适应。因此，该项目的预期结果将提供一个全面的图片的重要性，自组织模式的形成作为一个通用的机制，支持功能多样性的metacompatibility，他们将阐明如何敏感的机制是人类的干扰。

We recently described a novel mechanism for supporting functional diversity in metacommunities that builds on self-organized pattern formation. This process leads to the emergence of spatially heterogeneous distributions of species and their resources, caused only by the interplay of the feeding interactions of the species and their movement in space. Self-organized formation of spatial patterns is known from a variety of different ecosystems, but so far, little is known about how these patterns affect the diversity of communities. Using a model of a generic meta-foodweb with a diverse community of autotrophs (plants or algae), we have shown that the emerging patterns in the abundances of the species and their resources create locally different selection pressures on a functional trait of the autotrophs. This leads to biomass-trait feedbacks that increase the functional diversity of the autotrophs (as measured by the width of the distribution of the functional trait) tenfold compared to situations without self-organized pattern formation. This increase in diversity is significant, because it allows the autotroph communities to continually adapt to potential changes in environmental conditions. However, in order to facilitate a detailed understanding of this mechanism for supporting diversity, central model settings like the spatial arrangement of the habitat patches or the biodiversity throughout the food chain have been deliberately kept very simple. The main objective of this proposal is therefore to establish the generality and ecological significance of the described basic mechanism by developing the model further along three important axes of complexity. First, it is planned to determine conditions under which self-organized pattern formation can support functional diversity in realistic (i.e., large and complex) networks of habitat patches and to assess how these are affected by anthropogenic interference (e.g. habitat loss). We will then go on to explore the interaction between ubiquitous environmental heterogeneity, which by itself already creates different selection pressures on the functional trait, and the maintenance of functional diversity by self-organized pattern formation. Last, we will investigate the potential of the basic mechanism to support multi-trophic functional diversity by extending the model to include co-adaptation of diverse prey and predator communities. The anticipated results of the project will thus provide a comprehensive picture on the importance of self-organized pattern formation as a generic mechanism for supporting functional diversity in metacommunities, and they will shed light on how sensitive this mechanism is to human interference.