Biodiversity in the balance, how is it maintained?

Published: September 3, 2014 

Source: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis 

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One of the biggest questions in ecology is how biodiversity is maintained. "This is a fundamental"This is a fundamental question if we want to protect biodiversity -- what exactly do we need to protect?" says IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program Director Ulf Dieckmann. In most biology classes, they teach that no two species can occupy the same niche at the same time, but in the real world, it is actually true that two species can occupy the same niche at the same time. For example, the herring and sprat in the Baltic Sea occupy a similar niche, eating the same types of plankton. 

One theory is that the organisms react differently to the fluctuations in resources and limiting factors. Some examples are algal blooms for fish, and rainfall for mosquitoes. This causes changes in the environment that benefits the other species. This leads to a dynamic relationship in which each species benefits from each others influence on the environment, holding the two in balance. This is called the Relative Nonlinearity of Competition (RNC). This idea holds up very well, but it is very difficult for it to be tested. 

The scientists put RNC to the test by using three evolutionary models. These results show that the two coexisting species are outcompeted over time by one species. Further research has to be done on this topic to see what supports biodiversity.


This article directly relates to our class because of ecology and biodiversity. We spent a lot of time going over niches, and how they can only one species can occupy a specific niche. I found this article interesting because it totally went against what we learned in class.