Spatial ecology of territorial populations

Weiner, B. G., Posfai, A., Wingreen, N. S. (August 2019) Spatial ecology of territorial populations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 116 (36). pp. 17874-17879. ISSN 0027-8424

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Abstract

Many ecosystems, from vegetation to biofilms, are composed of territorial populations that compete for both nutrients and physical space. What are the implications of such spatial organization for biodiversity? To address this question, we developed and analyzed a model of territorial resource competition. In the model, all species obey trade-offs inspired by biophysical constraints on metabolism; the species occupy nonoverlapping territories, while nutrients diffuse in space. We find that the nutrient diffusion time is an important control parameter for both biodiversity and the timescale of population dynamics. Interestingly, fast nutrient diffusion allows the populations of some species to fluctuate to zero, leading to extinctions. Moreover, territorial competition spontaneously gives rise to both multistability and the Allee effect (in which a minimum population is required for survival), so that small perturbations can have major ecological effects. While the assumption of trade-offs allows for the coexistence of more species than the number of nutrients-thus violating the principle of competitive exclusion-overall biodiversity is curbed by the domination of "oligotroph" species. Importantly, in contrast to well-mixed models, spatial structure renders diversity robust to inequalities in metabolic trade-offs. Our results suggest that territorial ecosystems can display high biodiversity and rich dynamics simply due to competition for resources in a spatial community.

Item Type:	Paper
Subjects:	organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > organs types and functions > metabolism organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > organs types and functions organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions
CSHL Authors:	Posfai, Anna
Communities:	CSHL labs > Kinney lab
Depositing User:	Matthew Dunn
Date:	21 August 2019
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2019 15:27
Last Modified:	05 Feb 2024 21:00
PMCID:	PMC6731762
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/38405

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