ArticleNature ecology & evolution2024
Generalism in species interactions is more the consequence than the cause of ecological success.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Climate and regional plant richness drive diet specialization in butterfly caterpillars.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Phylogenetic and functional niche breadth in two taxa of arthropod ectoparasites: correlations with ecomorphological traits are scale-dependent.Parasitology research · 2026Article
- Article
- Fundamental Interaction Niches: Towards a Functional Understanding of Ecological Networks' Resilience.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- High Host Preferences in Epiphytic Lichens Across Diverse Phorophyte Species in the Mediterranean Region.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Generalism in resource use is commonly considered a critical driver of population success, species distribution and extinction risk. This idea can be questioned as generalism may be a result rather than the cause of species abundance and range size. We tested these contrasting causal hypotheses focusing on host use in three databases encompassing approximately 44,000 mutualistic (hummingbird-plant), commensalistic (lichen-plant) and parasitic (flea-mammal) interactions in 617 ecological communities across the Americas and Eurasia. Across all interaction types, our analyses indicated that range size and abundance influence the probability of encountering hosts and set the arena for species to express generalism potentials or adapt to new hosts. Hence, our findings support the hypothesis that generalism is a consequence of species ecological success. This highlights the importance of ecological opportunity in driving species characteristics considered key for their survival and conservation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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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.