The effects of disturbance patch size on species coexistence

A central problem in community ecology lies in determining how the frequency and spatial extent of disturbance events affect community structure. In an empirical study of competition in fungi ( Armstrong, 1976 ), I showed that the ease with which species are able to coexist can depend strongly on the disturbance regime. In the present paper, I use a model of two species competing for space to show that this observation was not due entirely to idiosyncrasies of the species studied; in particular, I show that as disturbance patch size increases relative to the dispersal abilities of the species involved, coexistence becomes more difficult. The model also predicts that coexistence should occur more readily as the level of seed production by the subordinate species increases relative to seed production by the dominant species, and as the growth rate and dispersal ability of the subordinate species increase relative to those of the dominant species. The present model may be enhanced for use in field situations, yielding quantitative predictions of conditions under which fugitive species will be able to coexist.

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