How Do Communities Assemble? The Influence of Local Conditions and Regional Processes on Community Composition

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

DEB - 0194634 Chase How do communities assemble? The influence of local conditions and regional processes on community composition. Do similar communities develop at similar sites? If local conditions, such as the primary productivity or disturbance rate, are of primary importance in community assembly, then we expect that community composition at sites with similar local conditions would converge towards the single community state favored in that environment. Alternatively, if regional processes, such as the rate at which species colonize a locality within a meta-community, and the order in which they do so, more strongly drive community assembly, then we might expect that communities developing at similar sites would diverge towards one of multiple community states. In this project, the PI will perform a long term experiment designed to discern between the influences of local conditions and regional processes on meta-community assembly. This research will provide some of the most comprehensive evidence to date examining the relative roles of local and regional scale processes in determining community structure in different environments. Further, the basic understanding of community assembly that is the focus of this project will directly relate to the conceptual foundation for the restoration of degraded ecosystems.