Meta‐ecosystem processes alter ecosystem function and can promote herbivore‐mediated coexistence 
Justin N. Marleau Frederic Guichard, 2019

Herbivory and dispersal play roles in the coexistence of primary producers with shared resource limitation by imposing trade‐offs either through apparent competition or dispersal limitation. These mechanisms of coexistence can further interact with meta‐ecosystem effects, which results in spatial heterogeneity through the movement of herbivores and nutrients. Here, we investigate how herbivores influence autotroph coexistence through a meta‐ecosystem effect, and how this effect couples mechanisms of coexistence to ecosystem structure and functioning. We articulate this framework through a parameterized one resource‐k producer‐one herbivore meta‐ecosystem model. The results show that herbivore movement with nutrient recycling can generate spatial heterogeneity to allow coexistence where the well‐mixed system predicts competitive exclusion. Furthermore, the presence of movement alters local and regional ecosystem functioning even when coexistence would occur without movement. These results highlight how meta‐ecosystem theory can provide a mechanistic context for the observed complexity of biodiversity‐ecosystem function relationships.

 .

https://bit.ly/2VY79CL

.