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- Title
The Strengths of r- and K-Selection Shape Diversity-Disturbance Relationships.
- Authors
Bohn, Kristin; Pavlick, Ryan; Reu, Björn; Kleidon, Axel
- Abstract
Disturbance is a key factor shaping species abundance and diversity in plant communities. Here, we use a mechanistic model of vegetation diversity to show that different strengths of r- and K-selection result in different disturbance-diversity relationships. R- and K-selection constrain the range of viable species through the colonization-competition tradeoff, with strong r-selection favoring colonizers and strong K-selection favoring competitors, but the level of disturbance also affects the success of species. This interplay among r- and K-selection and disturbance results in different shapes of disturbance-diversity relationships, with little variation of diversity with no r- and no K-selection, a decrease in diversity with r-selection with disturbance rate, an increase in diversity with K-selection, and a peak at intermediate values with strong r- and K-selection. We conclude that different disturbance-diversity relationships found in observations may reflect different intensities of r- and K-selection within communities, which should be inferable from broader observations of community composition and their ecophysiological trait ranges.
- Subjects
R/K selection theory (Biology); PLANT communities; PLANT diversity; ECOPHYSIOLOGY; COMPUTATIONAL biology; PLANT ecology
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2014, Vol 9, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0095659