Conceptual Synthesis in Community Ecology
2010/05/25 by Mark Vellend · 1 voice · 2,843 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Abundance (ecology) #Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies #Biological dispersal #Biology #Community #Computer science #Conceptual framework #Ecological speciation #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Evolutionary ecology #Genetic algorithm #Habitat #Neutral theory of molecular evolution #Plant and animal studies #Population #Selection (genetic algorithm) #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1086/652373
published in The Quarterly Review of Biology 85(2), 183-206 (University of Chicago Press)
openalex publication_date 2010/05/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract
Community ecology is often perceived as a "mess, "given the seemingly vast number of processes that can underlie the many patterns of interest, and the apparent uniqueness of each study system. However, at the most general level, patterns in the composition and diversity of species--the subject matter of community ecology--are influenced by only four classes of process: selection, drift, speciation, and dispersal. Selection represents deterministic fitness differences among species, drift represents stochastic changes in species abundance, speciation creates new species, and dispersal is the movement of organisms across space. All theoretical and conceptual models in community ecology can be understood with respect to their emphasis on these four processes. Empirical evidence exists for all of these processes and many of their interactions, with a predominance of studies on selection. Organizing the material of community ecology according to this framework can clarify the essential similarities and differences among the many conceptual and theoretical approaches to the discipline, and it can also allow for the articulation of a very general theory of community dynamics: species are added to communities via speciation and dispersal, and the relative abundances of these species are then shaped by drift and selection, as well as ongoing dispersal to drive community dynamics.
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