Niche types and community assembly

• Published in: Ecology letters 2024-01, Vol.27 (1), p.e14327-n/a
• Main Authors: Davison, John, Gerz, Maret, Hiiesalu, Inga, Moora, Mari, Semchenko, Marina, Zobel, Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: abiotic niche; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; Arbuscular mycorrhizas; Assembly; Biodiversity; biotic niche; Coexistence; condition niche; Differentiation; habitat filtering; limiting similarity; niche differentiation; Niches; resource niche; stabilizing mechanism
• ISSN: 1461-023X; 1461-0248
• DOI: 10.1111/ele.14327

Studies of niche differentiation and biodiversity often focus on a few niche dimensions due to the methodological challenge of describing hyperdimensional niche space. However, this may limit our understanding of community assembly processes. We used the full spectrum of realized niche types to study arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities: distinguishing abiotic and biotic, and condition and resource, axes. Estimates of differentiation in relation to different niche types were only moderately correlated. However, coexisting taxon niches were consistently less differentiated than expected, based on a regional null model, indicating the importance of habitat filtering at that scale. Nonetheless, resource niches were relatively more differentiated than condition niches, which is consistent with the effect of a resource niche‐based coexistence mechanism. Considering niche types, and in particular distinguishing resource and condition niches, provides a more complete understanding of community assembly, compared with studying individual niche axes or the full niche. We estimated the realized niches of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, based on global occurrence data, and distinguished niche categories corresponding to abiotic versus biotic and condition versus resource. The resource niches of coexisting taxa were relatively more differentiated than the condition niches, which is consistent with the effect of a resource niche‐based coexistence mechanism. Distinguishing different types of niche provides a more complete understanding of community assembly, compared with studying individual niche axes or the full niche.