title: Coexistence of species with different dispersal across landscapes: a critical role of spatial correlation in disturbance.
abstract: Disturbance is key to maintaining species diversity in plant communities. Although the effects of disturbance frequency and extent on species diversity have been studied, we do not yet have a mechanistic understanding of how these aspects of disturbance interact with spatial structure of disturbance to influence species diversity. Here we derive a novel pair approximation model to explore competitive outcomes in a two-species system subject to spatially correlated disturbance. Generally, spatial correlation in disturbance favoured long-range dispersers, while distance-limited dispersers were greatly suppressed. Interestingly, high levels of spatial aggregation of disturbance promoted long-term species coexistence that is not possible in the absence of disturbance, but only when the local disperser was intrinsically competitively superior. However, spatial correlation in disturbance led to different competitive outcomes, depending on the disturbed area. Concerning ecological conservation and management, we theoretically demonstrate that introducing a spatially correlated disturbance to the system or altering an existing disturbance regime can be a useful strategy either to control species invasion or to promote species coexistence. Disturbance pattern analysis may therefore provide new insights into biodiversity conservation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, People's Republic of China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jinbao
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9520-3235
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, People's Republic of China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhixia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.affiliation: Biology Department and the Institute for Great Lakes Research, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48858, USA.
authors.forename: Daelyn A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Woolnough
authors.affiliation: Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, People's Republic of China lizq@ibcas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhenqing
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3551-0188
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Research Group Plant and Vegetation Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp (Campus Drie Eiken), Universiteitsplein 1, Wilrijk 2610, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nijs
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010944:Plants; D011157:Population Dynamics
keywords: colonization–competition trade-off; pair approximation; spatially correlated disturbance; species dispersal