Linking modern coexistence theory and contemporary niche theory

Abstract

Modern coexistence theory and contemporary niche theory represent parallel frameworks for understanding the niche's role in species coexistence. Despite increasing prominence and shared goals, their compatibility and complementarity have received little attention. This paucity of overlap not only presents an obstacle to newcomers to the field, but it also precludes further conceptual advances at their interface. Here, we present a synthetic treatment of the two frameworks. We review their main concepts and explore their theoretical and empirical relationship, focusing on how the resource supply ratio, impact niche, and requirement niche of contemporary niche theory translate into the stabilizing and equalizing processes of modern coexistence theory. We show, for a general consumer–resource model, that varying resource supply ratios reflects an equalizing process; varying impact niche overlap reflects a stabilizing process; and varying requirement niche overlap may be both stabilizing and equalizing, but has no qualitative effect on coexistence. These generalizations provide mechanistic insight into modern coexistence theory, while also clarifying the role of contemporary niche theory's impacts and requirements in mediating coexistence. From an empirical perspective, we recommend a hierarchical approach, in which quantification of the strength of stabilizing mechanisms is used to guide more focused investigation into the underlying niche factors determining species coexistence. Future research that considers alternative assumptions, including different forms of species interaction, spatiotemporal heterogeneity, and priority effects, would facilitate a more complete synthesis of the two frameworks.