Mathematical ecological study on functional trait dynamics and community responses to environmental changes

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23570040
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: National Institute for Environmental Studies
• Principal Investigator: TANAKA Yoshinari 独立行政法人国立環境研究所, 環境リスク研究センター, 室長 (60338647)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YOSHINO Masafumi 広島大学, 大学院理学研究科, 教授 (00145658)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 生物群集 / 機能形質 / 生態系機能 / 環境かく乱要因 / 資源競争

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Mathematical models for predicting responses by communities to anthropogenic environmental disturbances were investigated from the perspective of changes in trait distributions of composite species in the community. In order to analyze the effect of stochasticity of colonization and extinction of species in the formation of communities on the trait changes in the community, we made a generalized community dynamics model which incorporated the environmental filtration effect and the effect of resource competition between species. The numerical simulations and mathematical analyses indicated that the variance of functional traits among species within communities decreased with the environmental filtration effect, whereas it increased with the resource competition among species. This trend was not greatly influenced by the inclusion of the stochastic process in colonization and extinction of composite species.

Free Research Field

数理生態学　群集生態学