The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities
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...
Published in: | Ecology Letters |
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Wiley
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ftucambridgeesc:oai:eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk:4516 2023-05-15T17:22:15+02:00 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 2019 text http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/ http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/1/ele.13383 http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/2/ele13383-sup-0001-supinfo.docx https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 en eng Wiley http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/1/ele.13383 http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/2/ele13383-sup-0001-supinfo.docx Mitchell, Emily G. and Harris, Simon and Kenchington, Charlotte G. and Vixseboxse, Philip and Roberts, Lucy and Clark, Catherine and Dennis, Alexandra and Liu, Alexander G. and Wilby, Philip R. and Williams, John (2019) The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities. Ecology Letters. ISSN 1461-023X DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 <https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383> cc_by CC-BY 04 - Palaeobiology Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftucambridgeesc https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 2020-08-27T18:10:03Z 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 University of Cambridge, Department of Earth Sciences: ESC Publications Canada Ecology Letters 22 12 2028 2038 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Cambridge, Department of Earth Sciences: ESC Publications |
op_collection_id |
ftucambridgeesc |
language |
English |
topic |
04 - Palaeobiology |
spellingShingle |
04 - Palaeobiology Mitchell, Emily G. Harris, Simon Kenchington, Charlotte G. Vixseboxse, Philip Roberts, Lucy Clark, Catherine Dennis, Alexandra Liu, Alexander G. Wilby, Philip R. Williams, John The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities |
topic_facet |
04 - Palaeobiology |
description |
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 |
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. Williams, John |
author_facet |
Mitchell, Emily G. Harris, Simon Kenchington, Charlotte G. Vixseboxse, Philip Roberts, Lucy Clark, Catherine Dennis, Alexandra Liu, Alexander G. Wilby, Philip R. Williams, John |
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://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/ http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/1/ele.13383 http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/2/ele13383-sup-0001-supinfo.docx https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_relation |
http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/1/ele.13383 http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/4516/2/ele13383-sup-0001-supinfo.docx Mitchell, Emily G. and Harris, Simon and Kenchington, Charlotte G. and Vixseboxse, Philip and Roberts, Lucy and Clark, Catherine and Dennis, Alexandra and Liu, Alexander G. and Wilby, Philip R. and Williams, John (2019) The importance of neutral over niche processes in structuring Ediacaran early animal communities. Ecology Letters. ISSN 1461-023X DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 <https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383> |
op_rights |
cc_by |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383 |
container_title |
Ecology Letters |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
2028 |
op_container_end_page |
2038 |
_version_ |
1766108767227740160 |