title: Framework for analyzing ecological trait-based models in multidimensional niche spaces.
abstract: We develop a theoretical framework for analyzing ecological models with a multidimensional niche space. Our approach relies on the fact that ecological niches are described by sequences of symbols, which allows us to include multiple phenotypic traits. Ecological drivers, such as competitive exclusion, are modeled by introducing the Hamming distance between two sequences. We show that a suitable transform diagonalizes the community interaction matrix of these models, making it possible to predict the conditions for niche differentiation and, close to the instability onset, the asymptotically long time population distributions of niches. We exemplify our method using the Lotka-Volterra equations with an exponential competition kernel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Loomis Laboratory of Physics, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080, USA.
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Biancalani
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Institute for Genomic Biology, 1409 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: DeVille
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Loomis Laboratory of Physics, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080, USA.
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goldenfeld
mesh_terms: D055669:Ecological and Environmental Phenomena; D016014:Linear Models; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010641:Phenotype; D013269:Stochastic Processes