title: Competition-colonization dynamics in experimental bacterial metacommunities.
abstract: One of the simplest hypotheses used to explain species coexistence is the competition-colonization trade-off, that is, species can stably coexist in a landscape if they show a trade-off between competitive and colonization abilities. Despite extensive theory, the dynamics predicted to result from competition-colonization trade-offs are largely untested. Landscape change, such as habitat destruction, is thought to greatly influence coexistence under competition-colonization dynamics, although there is no formal test of this prediction. Here we present the first illustration of competition-colonization dynamics that fully transposes theory into a controlled experimental metacommunity of two Pseudomonas bacterial strains. The competition-colonization dynamics were achieved by directly manipulating trade-off strength and colonization rates to generate the full range of coexistence conditions and responses to habitat destruction. Our study successfully generates competition-colonization dynamics matching theoretical predictions, and our results further reveal a negative relationship between diversity and productivity when scaling up to entire metacommunities.
authors.affiliation: Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - CNRS UMR 5554 - Université de Montpellier II, CC 065 34095 Montpellier, Cedex 05, France. glivingston@utexas.edu
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Livingston
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matias
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Calcagno
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barbera
authors.forename: Marine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Combe
authors.forename: Mathew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Leibold
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mouquet
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development*; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011549:Pseudomonas