Géza Meszéna - What is niche-space? The exact and intuitive theory скачать в хорошем качестве

Géza Meszéna - What is niche-space? The exact and intuitive theory

Theoretical Ecology Seminar from the IITE (https://iite.info) byGéza Meszéna. Recorded 28th May 2024. Abstract:Most of our knowledge on ecosystems is qualitative: lion eats gazelle, trees compete for light. The Hutchinsonian concept of niche-space, i.e., species partition an abstract space among themselves, had been regarded as the intuitive big picture of ecology. It lost this status through endless debates on interpretation, as well as on the principle of competitive exclusion. Modern coexistence theory studies mathematical conditions of species coexistence without any connection to the qualitative knowledge. Instead, it depends on quantitative details (model selection) which are difficult to acquire beyond the simplest ecological settings. I will argue that sufficiently general mathematical handling of coexistence theory allows us keeping the connection to the qualitative knowledge and biological intuition. I hope that it will be possible to uncover the major niche structures behind the high diversity of some ecosystems.