Richardson James A, Engelstädter Jan, Letten Andrew D
School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jun 17;122(24):e2424996122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2424996122. Epub 2025 Jun 13.
Resource fluctuations are ubiquitous in nature and yet are generally assumed to play a limited role in the maintenance of biodiversity. We challenge this assumption by analyzing resource competition dynamics under conditions where prevailing theory does not hold. We show that multispecies coexistence can be sustained when species are able to specialize on different temporal patterns of resource variability, including the asymmetries and periodic extremes commonly observed in natural systems. We further show how this partitioning of the statistical moments of the resource distribution provides a unified framework for explaining coexistence in variable resource environments. The multiplicity of niches we find in a single fluctuating resource highlights the potential for anthropogenic changes in resource regimes to drive cascading biodiversity losses.
资源波动在自然界中普遍存在，但通常被认为在生物多样性维持中作用有限。我们通过分析在主流理论不成立的条件下的资源竞争动态，对这一假设提出质疑。我们表明，当物种能够专门适应资源变异性的不同时间模式，包括自然系统中常见的不对称性和周期性极值时，多物种共存能够得以维持。我们进一步展示了资源分布统计矩的这种划分如何为解释可变资源环境中的共存提供一个统一框架。我们在单一波动资源中发现的生态位多样性凸显了资源状况的人为变化导致生物多样性连锁损失的可能性。
