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The feasibility principle in community ecology

Serguei Saavedra, MIT
Tuesday December 10, 12-1pm
Zoom Link:Ìý
In Person: 550 Sherbrooke, Room 189

Abstract:ÌýThe structure and function of ecological communities are conceptualized as an emergent outcome derived from the set of interacting populations in a given environment. However, it has remained unclear whether common principles can explain the diversity of communities that we observe in nature. To address this gap, I propose the feasibility principle in community ecology. This principle is based on two main assumptions: (i) Every community of interacting populations is feasible for a set of environmental challenges. (ii) Self-organization leads to communities that are feasible for the largest set of local environmental challenges. I summarize how the feasibility principle has been studied under a quantitative framework and its predictions have been supported by empirical data across a wide diversity of organisms and environmental contexts.