Temporal niche dynamics, relative abundance and phylogenetic signal of coexisting species

The coexistence of similar species accounts for some 30% of diversity within communities, yet the coexistence and relative abundance of similar species is a continuing ecological conundrum. Using close phylogenetic relatedness as a measure of similarity, we previously demonstrated that neither classic niche theory nor neutral theory can explain the relative abundances of co-occurring pairs of similar tree species in a diverse tropical forest. Here, we show that the stable, focused competition of a temporal niche dynamic fits the distribution of observed fractional abundances (pairwise relative abundances). Previously published, independent evidence of temporal dynamics in this community supports our results; our model identifies additional criteria for field tests of differential sensitivity (DS) temporal dynamics. The success of temporal dynamics at explaining the observed distribution—and the failure of alternative hypotheses to do so—indicates that current diagnostics of community structure and assembly needs general re-examination. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.