The Role of Diversity in the Energetics of Plant Communities

Author Institution: Biological Research Laboratories, Syracuse UniversityCommunity organization, which is determined in an environmental matrix that varies in space, time, and resource quality, is an important determinant of fitnesses of constituent populations, [n addition, the fitnesses of individual populations are important determinants of community properties. Changes in species richness and equitability during plant succession indicate that comparative fitnesses of co-occuring populations, as measured by their abilities to contribute to energy flow, become more similar as succession proceeds. The rate of species invasion diminishes with greater diversity, and a smaller proportion of the flora is subject to extinction in a given time period. Community diversity, population fitness, environmental heterogeneity, and population and community stability are members of a complex feedback loop which couples each to the others