PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 1: Ecological Theory I: Theory; Scaling.
Presiding: M Pascual
Monday, August 4. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Meeting Room 100.
Rethinking individualistic theory for communities: An integrative solution.
Lortie, Christopher*,1, Brooker, Rob2, Choler, Phillipe3, Kikvidze, Zaal4, Michalet, Richard5, Pugnaire, Francisco6, Callaway, Ragan6, 1 University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA2 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Banchory, Banchory, Scotland3 University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, Grenoble, France4 Institute of Botany of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia5 Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France6 Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas, Almeria, Spain
ABSTRACT- Plant communities have been viewed as either a random collection of individuals or as organismal entities. For most ecologists, neither perspective provides a modern view, yet formal positions continue to adopt this polarization. Exacerbating these extremes, a recent exchange in the literature threatens polarization over the importance of negative versus positive interactions as predominant drivers of community organization. We propose that current conceptual theory for communities is inadequate as a basic foundation for the rapidly expanding empirical body of knowledge. It is clear that species within natural plant communities can function individualistically and interdependently depending on synergism among: (i) stochastic processes, (ii) the abiotic tolerances of species, (iii) positive and negative interactions among plants, and (iv) indirect interactions within and between trophic levels. All of these processes are well accepted by plant ecologists but not all fit comfortably within an individualistic paradigm of plant communities. The position that communities simultaneously have both individualistic and interdependent properties is analogous to the anthropic principle in quantum physics where light is both wave and particle. Research conducted during the last 15 years strongly indicates that the function of plant communities, like animal communities and ecosystems, depends on both the properties of individuals and on the properties of species aggregations. This dualistic nature creates environmentally and life-history driven variation from independence to interdependence among plant species and is typically regarded as noise by many ecologists. However, as in quantum physics, this noise should be viewed as a unique opportunity for synthesis, not as a fundamental limitation of ecology.
Key words: plant competition, community theory, facilitation, paradigm