CONFRONTING THE PARADOX OF ENRICHMENT TO THE METACOMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE.

Hauzy C., Nadin G., Canard E., Gounand I. Mouquet N. and Ebenman B. (2013).

Plos One, 8, e82969, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082969

Key message : Here, we adapted the original Rosenzweig-MacArthur predator-prey model, built to study the paradox of enrichment, to investigate the effect of regional enrichment and of its spatial distribution on predatorprey dynamics in metacommunities. We found that the potential for destabilization was depending on the connectivity among communities and the spatial distribution of enrichment. In one hand, we found that at low dispersal regional enrichment led to the destabilization of predator-prey dynamics. This destabilizing effect was more pronounced when the enrichment was uneven among communities. In the other hand, we found that high dispersal could stabilize the predator prey dynamics when the enrichment was spatially heterogeneous. Our results illustrate that the destabilizing effect of enrichment can be dampened when the spatial scale of resource enrichment is lower than that of organisms movements (heterogeneous enrichment).

Examples of population dynamics of the prey (black) and of the predator (grey) when spatial heterogeneity is maximal. Metacommunities have two patches, one poor patch (left column), where prey carrying capacity is kept constant, and one enriched patch (right column), where prey carrying capacity is increased. A. Low dispersal and low enrichment. B. High dispersal and low enrichment. C. High dispersal and high enrichment.

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OTHER TOPICS: Aesthetics of Biodiversity, Biogeography, Macroecology & Ecophylogenetics, Experimental Evolution, Functional Biogeography, Functional Rarity, Nature for Future, Metacommunities, Metaecosystems, Reviews and Synthesis, Trophic Biogeography & Metaweb