Rethinking the nature of intraspecific variability and its consequences on species coexistence

Girard-Tercieux Camille, Marechaux Isabelle, Clark Adam T., Clark James S., Courbaud Benoît, Fortunel Claire, Guillemot Joannès, Kunstler Georges, Le Maire Guerric, Pélissier Raphaël, Rüger Nadja, Vieilledent Ghislain. 2023. Rethinking the nature of intraspecific variability and its consequences on species coexistence. Ecology and Evolution, 13 (3):e9860, 18 p.

Url - autres données associées : https://github.com/camillegirardtercieux/coexIV / Url - jeu de données - Entrepôt autre : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5504013

Résumé : Intraspecific variability (IV) has been proposed to explain species coexistence in diverse communities. Assuming, sometimes implicitly, that conspecific individuals can perform differently in the same environment and that IV increases niche overlap, previous studies have found contrasting results regarding the effect of IV on species coexistence. We aim at showing that the large IV observed in data does not mean that conspecific individuals are necessarily different in their response to the environment and that the role of high-dimensional environmental variation in determining IV has largely remained unexplored in forest plant communities. We first used a simulation experiment where an individual attribute is derived from a high-dimensional model, representing “perfect knowledge” of individual response to the environment, to illustrate how large observed IV can result from “imperfect knowledge” of the environment. Second, using growth data from clonal Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, we estimated a major contribution of the environment in determining individual growth. Third, using tree growth data from long-term tropical forest inventories in French Guiana, Panama and India, we showed that tree growth in tropical forests is structured spatially and that despite a large observed IV at the population level, conspecific individuals perform more similarly locally than compared with heterospecific individuals. As the number of environmental dimensions that are well quantified at fine scale is generally lower than the actual number of dimensions influencing individual attributes, a great part of observed IV might be represented as random variation across individuals when in fact it is environmentally driven. This mis-representation has important consequences for inference about community dynamics. We emphasize that observed IV does not necessarily impact species coexistence per se but can reveal species response to high-dimensional environment, which is consistent with niche theory and the observation of the many differences between species in nature.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : modèle de simulation, forêt tropicale, impact sur l'environnement, télédétection, croissance, Eucalyptus, modélisation environnementale, distribution géographique, dynamique des populations, écologie forestière, modèle mathématique, écologie

Mots-clés géographiques Agrovoc : France, Guyane française, Brésil

Mots-clés libres : Competition, Environmental variation, High-dimensional niche, Individual variation, Intraspecific variability, Spatial autocorrelation, Spatial heterogeneity, Species coexistence

Classification Agris : F40 - Écologie végétale
U10 - Informatique, mathématiques et statistiques

Champ stratégique Cirad : CTS 1 (2019-) - Biodiversité

Agences de financement hors UE : Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Projets sur financement : (FRA) CEnter of the study of Biodiversity in Amazonia

Auteurs et affiliations

• Girard-Tercieux Camille, Université de Montpellier (FRA) - auteur correspondant
• Marechaux Isabelle, CNRS (FRA)
• Clark Adam T., Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (AUT)
• Clark James S., Duke University (USA)
• Courbaud Benoît, Université Grenoble Alpes (FRA)
• Fortunel Claire, IRD (FRA)
• Guillemot Joannès, CIRAD-PERSYST-UMR Eco&Sols (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0003-4385-7656
• Kunstler Georges, Université Grenoble Alpes (FRA)
• Le Maire Guerric, CIRAD-PERSYST-UMR Eco&Sols (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0002-5227-958X
• Pélissier Raphaël, IRD (FRA)
• Rüger Nadja, University of Leipzig (DEU)
• Vieilledent Ghislain, CIRAD-BIOS-UMR AMAP (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0002-1685-4997

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/604786/)

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