COMPETITION IN SAFE-SITES

Abstract We develop the lottery competition model for Poisson distributed arrivals of potential colonists of a site. We consider the entire range from equal competitors to complete competitive dominance of one species. It turns out that species with exactly the same resource requirements can coexist in a constant environment, and that coexistence is favoured by intermediate safe-site abundance. We also discuss the calculation of evolutionarily stable seed sizes in the context of this model. The results are independent of longevity or any specific fertility schedule, but merely depend on the competitive ability in the seedling stage and the lifetime per capita seed number.

[1]  J. Harper.  Population Biology of Plants , 1979 .

[2]  Stephen P. Ellner,et al.  Coexistence of plant species with similar niches , 1984, Vegetatio.

[3]  S. Ellner,et al.  ESS germination strategies in randomly varying environments. I. Logistic-type models. , 1985, Theoretical population biology.

[4]  Peter Chesson,et al.  The stabilizing effect of a random environment , 1982 .

[5]  T. Fagerström,et al.  Limiting dissimilarity in plants: randomness prevents exclusion of species with similar competitive abilities , 1984 .

[6]  D. Levin,et al.  The Ecological and Genetic Consequences of Density-Dependent Regulation in Plants , 1980 .

[7]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Competitive Exclusion in Herbaceous Vegetation , 1973, Nature.

[8]  R. Ricklefs,et al.  Competition and the structure of bird communities. , 1975, Monographs in population biology.

[9]  R. Macarthur,et al.  COMPETITION, HABITAT SELECTION, AND CHARACTER DISPLACEMENT IN A PATCHY ENVIRONMENT. , 1964, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[10]  P. Chesson,et al.  Environmental Variability Promotes Coexistence in Lottery Competitive Systems , 1981, The American Naturalist.

[11]  T. Fagerström,et al.  Theory for Coexistence of Species Differing in Regeneration Properties , 1979 .

[12]  G. Hardin.  The competitive exclusion principle. , 1960, Science.

[13]  M. Huston.  A General Hypothesis of Species Diversity , 1979, The American Naturalist.

[14]  Peter Chesson,et al.  Coexistence of Competitors in Spatially and Temporally Varying Environments: A Look at the Combined Effects of Different Sorts of Variability , 1985 .

[15]  R. Paine,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF GRAZING BY SEA URCHINS, STRONGYLOCENTROTUS SPP., ON BENTHIC ALGAL POPULATIONS1 , 1969 .

[16]  R M May,et al.  Niche overlap as a function of environmental variability. , 1972, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  J. Connell.  Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. , 1978, Science.

[18]  J. Lubchenco.  Plant Species Diversity in a Marine Intertidal Community: Importance of Herbivore Food Preference and Algal Competitive Abilities , 1978, The American Naturalist.

[19]  Stephen W. Pacala,et al.  Neighborhood models of plant population dynamics. 2. Multi-species models of annuals , 1986 .

[20]  S. Pacala,et al.  Neighborhood Models of Plant Population Dynamics. I. Single-Species Models of Annuals , 1985, The American Naturalist.

[21]  R. May,et al.  Competition within and between species in a patchy environment: Relations between microscopic and macroscopic models , 1985 .

[22]  J. G. Skellam.  Random dispersal in theoretical populations , 1951, Biometrika.

[23]  R. May,et al.  Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems , 1976, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[24]  A. Rescigno,et al.  On the competitive exclusion principle. , 1965, The Bulletin of mathematical biophysics.

[25]  Stephen W. Pacala,et al.  Neighborhood Models of Plant Population Dynamics. 4. Single-Species and Multispecies Models of Annuals with Dormant Seeds , 1986, The American Naturalist.

[26]  J. F. Fox.  Intermediate levels of soil disturbance maximize alpine plant diversity , 1981, Nature.

[27]  A. Hastings.  Disturbance, coexistence, history, and competition for space , 1980 .

[28]  S. Levin.  Community Equilibria and Stability, and an Extension of the Competitive Exclusion Principle , 1970, The American Naturalist.

[29]  P. Werner.  Competition and Coexistence of Similar Species , 1979 .

[30]  P. Grubb.  THE MAINTENANCE OF SPECIES‐RICHNESS IN PLANT COMMUNITIES: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REGENERATION NICHE , 1977 .

[31]  R. Levins.  Evolution in Changing Environments , 1968 .

[32]  Evolutionarily stable strategies and the evolution of life history strategies: I. Density dependent models. , 1978, Journal of theoretical biology.

[33]  G. E. Hutchinson,et al.  Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals? , 1959, The American Naturalist.

[34]  B. Shorrocks,et al.  Competition on a Divided and Ephemeral Resource: A Simulation Model , 1981 .