ArticleNature ecology & evolution2021
The evolution of niche overlap and competitive differences.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Coexistence Theory for Microbial Ecology, and Vice Versa.Environmental microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Niche overlap between 2 small sympatric predators from the Atacama Desert.Current zoology · 2026Article
- Cuticular Hydrocarbons-Revealed Functional Groups and Seasonal Acclimation in Sympatric Fig Wasp Mating Assemblages.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Comparative analysis of morphology and gut microbiome underlying trophic niche differentiation in three stomatopod species.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Contrasting Trait-Mediated Mechanisms Shape Peatland Testate Amoeba Communities Under Long-Term Drying Across Fen-Bog Gradient.Microbial ecology · 2026Article
- General Predictions for the Effects of Warming on Competition.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Environmental "knees" and "wiggles" as strong stabilizers of species' range limits set by interspecific competition.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Multispecies Niche Overlap: Moving Beyond Pairwise Metrics to Understand Community-Wide Similarities in Resource Use.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Groundwater Controls on Plant Community Structure and Species Specific Water Use Strategies in the Desert Oasis Ecotone of the Junggar Basin.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Tree Composition, Niche Characteristics, and Mammal Habitat Use Across Different Types of Forests in Wanglang Nature Reserve.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Community conservatism is widespread across microbial phyla and environments.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Interactions between phytoplankton and bacterioplankton communities in Caohai plateau lake, revealed by environmental DNA metagenomics.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Niche breadth and niche overlap of typical plant communities in the plateau temperate semi-arid river valley climatic region of the Qinghai-Xizang plateau.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Convergent GenX biodegradation by genomically designed and functionally screened synthetic bacterial consortia.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Divergent Functional Roles of Shredder Size: Interspecific Versus Intraspecific Effects on Aquatic Leaf Litter Decomposition.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The Response ofEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Dry Season Feeding Profiles of a Characiformes Assemblage in a Brazilian Tropical Stream.Zoological studies · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal Niche Differentiation of Ungulates in the Southwest Mountains, China.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- A new mamenchisaurid sauropod dinosaur from the upper jurassic of Southwest China reveals new evolutionary evidence from East Asian eusauropods.Scientific reports · 2025Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Competition can result in evolutionary changes to coexistence between competitors but there are no theoretical models that predict how the components of coexistence change during this eco-evolutionary process. Here we study the evolution of the coexistence components, niche overlap and competitive differences, in a two-species eco-evolutionary model based on consumer-resource interactions and quantitative genetic inheritance. Species evolve along a one-dimensional trait axis that allows for changes in both niche position and species intrinsic growth rates. There are three main results. First, the breadth of the environment has a strong effect on the dynamics, with broader environments leading to reduced niche overlap and enhanced coexistence. Second, coexistence often involves a reduction in niche overlap while competitive differences stay relatively constant or vice versa; in general changes in competitive differences maintain coexistence only when niche overlap remains constant. Large simultaneous changes in niche overlap and competitive difference often result in one of the species being excluded. Third, provided that the species evolve to a state where they coexist, the final niche overlap and competitive difference values are independent of the system's initial state, although they do depend on the model's parameters. The model suggests that evolution is often a destructive force for coexistence due to evolutionary changes in competitive differences, a finding that expands the paradox of diversity maintenance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.