title: Monodominance in tropical forests: modelling reveals emerging clusters and phase transitions.
abstract: Tropical forests are highly diverse ecosystems, but within such forests there can be large patches dominated by a single tree species. The myriad presumed mechanisms that lead to the emergence of such monodominant areas is currently the subject of intensive research. We used the most generic of these mechanisms, large seed mass and low dispersal ability of the monodominant species, in a spatially explicit model. The model represents seven identical species with long-distance dispersal of small seeds, competing with one potentially monodominant species with short-distance dispersal of large seeds. Monodominant patches emerged and persisted only for a narrow range of species traits; these results have the characteristic features of phase transitions. Additional mechanisms may explain monodominance in different ecological contexts, but our results suggest that percolation-like phenomena and phase transitions might be pervasive in this type of system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kazmierczak
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany pia.backmann@ufz.de.
authors.forename: Pia
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0010-9666
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Backmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Sevilla, Spain Centre for Applied Ecology 'Prof. Baeta Neves'/InBIO, Institute Superior of Agronomy, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fedriani
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Rico
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, University of Oldenburg, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huth
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: May
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Taubert
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grimm
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Groeneveld
mesh_terms: D065928:Forests; D008954:Models, Biological; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: criticality; dispersal; percolation; phase transitions; simulation; single-species dominance