Neutral theory in macroecology and population genetics

Current neutral theory in macroecology has many parallels with neutral theory in population genetics, but it also has many distinct features that arise because it focuses mainly on questions at the community level rather than at the population level. Here we highlight the similarities and differences between these two bodies of theories from the aspects of the operational units, definitions of neutrality, basic parameters, driving forces, spatial structure and community assembly rules. Compared with neutral theory in population genetics, whose development spans more than 40 years, neutral theory in ecology, which is only a few years old, is still immature and under-developed. There are many opportunities for major theoretical contributions, some of which can be adopted directly from population genetics, while others will require new theoretical work. We critically discuss these opportunities and theoretical challenges in neutral macroecology, particularly in regard to effective community size, ecological drift, community differentiation and ecological dominance.

[1]  Tadashi Fukami,et al.  Dispersal, spatial scale, and species diversity in a hierarchically structured experimental landscape. , 2005, Ecology letters.

[2]  R. Ricklefs,et al.  A comment on Hubbell's zero‐sum ecological drift model , 2003 .

[3]  Rampal S Etienne,et al.  A dispersal-limited sampling theory for species and alleles. , 2005, Ecology letters.

[4]  T. Jukes,et al.  The neutral theory of molecular evolution. , 2000, Genetics.

[5]  S. Wright,et al.  Isolation by Distance. , 1943, Genetics.

[6]  John S. Gray,et al.  The impact of rare species on natural assemblages , 2005 .

[7]  I. Hanski.  Metapopulation dynamics , 1998, Nature.

[8]  T. Ohta,et al.  Linkage disequilibrium due to random genetic drift in finite subdivided populations. , 1982, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[9]  B. McGill.  A test of the unified neutral theory of biodiversity , 2003, Nature.

[10]  Han Olff,et al.  A novel genealogical approach to neutral biodiversity theory , 2004 .

[11]  S. Hubbell,et al.  The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography at age ten. , 2011, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[12]  M. Kreitman,et al.  Adaptive protein evolution at the Adh locus in Drosophila , 1991, Nature.

[13]  S. Wright.  Evolution and the Genetics of Populations, Volume 3: Experimental Results and Evolutionary Deductions , 1977 .

[14]  Stephen P. Hubbell,et al.  Beta-Diversity in Tropical Forest Trees , 2002, Science.

[15]  H. F.,et al.  Deriving a neutral model of species abundance from fundamental mechanisms of population dynamics , 2005 .

[16]  T. Nagylaki,et al.  Decay of genetic variability in geographically structured populations. , 1974, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  P. Driessche,et al.  Dispersal data and the spread of invading organisms. , 1996 .

[18]  R. Macarthur,et al.  The Theory of Island Biogeography , 1969 .

[19]  M. Vellend,et al.  Connections between species diversity and genetic diversity , 2005 .

[20]  Montgomery Slatkin,et al.  ISOLATION BY DISTANCE IN EQUILIBRIUM AND NON‐EQUILIBRIUM POPULATIONS , 1993, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[21]  Jérôme Chave,et al.  Neutral theory and community ecology , 2004 .

[22]  A. McKane,et al.  Sampling Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity , 2004 .

[23]  J. Orrock,et al.  Changes in Community Size Affect the Outcome of Competition , 2005, The American Naturalist.

[24]  Jonathan M. Chase,et al.  Ecological Niches: Linking Classical and Contemporary Approaches , 2003 .

[25]  ISOLATION BY DISTANCE IN EQUILIBRIUM AND NONEQUILIBRIUM POPULATIONS OF FOUR TALITRID SPECIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA , 2000, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[26]  F. Tajima.  Statistical method for testing the neutral mutation hypothesis by DNA polymorphism. , 1989, Genetics.

[27]  Potts,et al.  Can high tree species richness be explained by Hubbell’s null model? , 1998 .

[28]  M. Kimura.  The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution: Introduction , 1983 .

[29]  B. Houchmandzadeh,et al.  Analytical solution of a neutral model of biodiversity. , 2003, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[30]  Gillespie,et al.  Development of Neutral and Nearly Neutral Theories , 1996, Theoretical population biology.

[31]  G. Bell.  Neutral macroecology. , 2001, Science.

[32]  N I , 2008 .

[33]  Anne Lohrli.  Chapman and Hall , 1985 .

[34]  S. Hubbell,et al.  Neutral theory and relative species abundance in ecology , 2003, Nature.

[35]  Michel Loreau,et al.  Coexistence in Metacommunities: The Regional Similarity Hypothesis , 2002, The American Naturalist.

[36]  Jonathan M. Chase,et al.  The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology , 2004 .

[37]  Jonathan M. Chase.  Towards a really unified theory for metacommunities , 2005 .

[38]  S. Hubbell,et al.  Density dependence explains tree species abundance and diversity in tropical forests , 2005, Nature.

[39]  S. Nee.  The neutral theory of biodiversity: do the numbers add up? , 2005 .

[40]  W. Ewens.  The sampling theory of selectively neutral alleles. , 1972, Theoretical population biology.

[41]  Hal Caswell,et al.  Community Structure: A Neutral Model Analysis , 1976 .

[42]  J. Merilä,et al.  Comparison of genetic differentiation at marker loci and quantitative traits , 2001 .

[43]  F. He.  Deriving a neutral model of species abundance from fundamental mechanisms of population dynamics , 2005 .

[44]  Jayanth R Banavar,et al.  Spatial scaling in model plant communities. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[45]  R. Holt.  Predation, apparent competition, and the structure of prey communities. , 1977, Theoretical population biology.

[46]  B. Weir.  Genetic Data Analysis II. , 1997 .

[47]  Rampal S. Etienne,et al.  A new sampling formula for neutral biodiversity , 2005 .

[48]  R. Dennis Cook,et al.  The Statistics of Natural Selection. , 1987 .

[49]  Jérôme Chave,et al.  A Spatially Explicit Neutral Model of β-Diversity in Tropical Forests , 2002 .

[50]  Sewall Wright,et al.  The theory of gene frequencies , 1969 .

[51]  David Tilman,et al.  Niche tradeoffs, neutrality, and community structure: a stochastic theory of resource competition, invasion, and community assembly. , 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[52]  D. Tilman.  Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. (MPB-26), Volume 26 , 1988 .

[53]  R. Lande,et al.  Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation , 2003 .

[54]  R. Eckhardt.  Statistics of natural selection , 1987 .

[55]  G. R. Fraser,et al.  The mathematics of heredity , 1971 .

[56]  M. Slatkin,et al.  A Quasi-equilibrium theory of the distribution of rare alleles in a subdivided population , 1986, Heredity.

[57]  Kui Lin,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF COMPETITIVE ASYMMETRY ON THE RATE OF COMPETITIVE DISPLACEMENT : HOW ROBUST IS HUBBELL'S COMMUNITY DRIFT MODEL? , 1997 .

[58]  Fangliang He,et al.  Hubbell's fundamental biodiversity parameter and the Simpson diversity index , 2005 .

[59]  James S. Clark,et al.  Stability of forest biodiversity , 2003, Nature.

[60]  John C. Avise,et al.  Molecular Markers, Natural History and Evolution , 1993, Springer US.

[61]  J. Melville.  Competition and character displacement in two species of scincid lizards , 2002 .