The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities
Abstract The relative influence of niche vs. neutral processes in ecosystem dynamics is an on‐going debate, but the extent to which they structured the earliest animal communities is unknown. Some of the oldest known metazoan‐dominated paleocommunities occur in Ediacaran age (~ 565 million years old...
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crwiley:10.1111/ele.13383 2024-09-15T18:20:06+00:00 The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities Mitchell, Emily G. Harris, Simon Kenchington, Charlotte G. Vixseboxse, Philip Roberts, Lucy Clark, Catherine Dennis, Alexandra Liu, Alexander G. Wilby, Philip R. Williams, John Natural Environment Research Council Newnham College, University of Cambridge 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ele.13383 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/ele.13383 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology Letters volume 22, issue 12, page 2028-2038 ISSN 1461-023X 1461-0248 journal-article 2019 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 2024-08-01T04:21:08Z Abstract The relative influence of niche vs. neutral processes in ecosystem dynamics is an on‐going debate, but the extent to which they structured the earliest animal communities is unknown. Some of the oldest known metazoan‐dominated paleocommunities occur in Ediacaran age (~ 565 million years old) strata in Newfoundland, Canada and Charnwood Forest, UK. These comprise large and diverse populations of sessile organisms that are amenable to spatial point process analyses, enabling inference of the most likely underlying niche or neutral processes governing community structure. We mapped seven Ediacaran paleocommunities using LiDAR, photogrammetry and a laser line probe. We found that neutral processes dominate these paleocommunities, with niche processes exerting limited influence, in contrast with the niche‐dominated dynamics of modern marine ecosystems. The dominance of neutral processes suggests that early metazoan diversification may not have been driven by systematic adaptations to the local environment, but instead may have resulted from stochastic demographic differences. Article in Journal/Newspaper Newfoundland Wiley Online Library Ecology Letters 22 12 2028 2038 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
Abstract The relative influence of niche vs. neutral processes in ecosystem dynamics is an on‐going debate, but the extent to which they structured the earliest animal communities is unknown. Some of the oldest known metazoan‐dominated paleocommunities occur in Ediacaran age (~ 565 million years old) strata in Newfoundland, Canada and Charnwood Forest, UK. These comprise large and diverse populations of sessile organisms that are amenable to spatial point process analyses, enabling inference of the most likely underlying niche or neutral processes governing community structure. We mapped seven Ediacaran paleocommunities using LiDAR, photogrammetry and a laser line probe. We found that neutral processes dominate these paleocommunities, with niche processes exerting limited influence, in contrast with the niche‐dominated dynamics of modern marine ecosystems. The dominance of neutral processes suggests that early metazoan diversification may not have been driven by systematic adaptations to the local environment, but instead may have resulted from stochastic demographic differences. |
author2 |
Williams, John Natural Environment Research Council Newnham College, University of Cambridge |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mitchell, Emily G. Harris, Simon Kenchington, Charlotte G. Vixseboxse, Philip Roberts, Lucy Clark, Catherine Dennis, Alexandra Liu, Alexander G. Wilby, Philip R. |
spellingShingle |
Mitchell, Emily G. Harris, Simon Kenchington, Charlotte G. Vixseboxse, Philip Roberts, Lucy Clark, Catherine Dennis, Alexandra Liu, Alexander G. Wilby, Philip R. The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
author_facet |
Mitchell, Emily G. Harris, Simon Kenchington, Charlotte G. Vixseboxse, Philip Roberts, Lucy Clark, Catherine Dennis, Alexandra Liu, Alexander G. Wilby, Philip R. |
author_sort |
Mitchell, Emily G. |
title |
The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
title_short |
The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
title_full |
The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
title_fullStr |
The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
title_full_unstemmed |
The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
title_sort |
importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring ediacaran early animal communities |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ele.13383 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/ele.13383 |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_source |
Ecology Letters volume 22, issue 12, page 2028-2038 ISSN 1461-023X 1461-0248 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 |
container_title |
Ecology Letters |
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22 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
2028 |
op_container_end_page |
2038 |
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1810458474783440896 |