Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Am Nat. 2013 Sep;182(3):374-92. doi: 10.1086/671327. Epub 2013 Jul 18.
Many ecological systems can exhibit alternative stable states (ASS), which implies that ecological communities may diverge depending on their initial state, despite identical environmental conditions. Here we present a new mechanism that can cause ASS in competition systems. Using a physiologically structured model of competing populations, representing Baltic Sea sprat and herring and their resources, we show how cohort-driven population cycles may result in priority effects leading to ASS. Similar mechanisms could, depending on mortality level, also result in a "resident strikes back" phenomenon. We argue that the prerequisites for the occurrence of ASS in our model system, that is, communities with competing populations exhibiting cohort cycles and variation in size at maturation, may be common in ecological systems.
许多生态系统可以表现出替代稳定状态（ASS），这意味着尽管环境条件相同，生态群落可能会因初始状态的不同而出现分歧。在这里，我们提出了一种新的机制，可以在竞争系统中引起 ASS。我们使用了一个竞争种群的生理结构模型，代表了波罗的海鲱鱼和鲱鱼及其资源，展示了群体驱动的种群周期如何导致优先效应，从而导致 ASS。类似的机制可能会根据死亡率水平导致“居民反击”现象。我们认为，我们模型系统中 ASS 发生的前提条件，即存在竞争种群且具有群体周期和成熟大小变化的群落，可能在生态系统中很常见。
