Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Ecology

Close relatives are bad news

Nature volume 466, pages 698–699 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

In tropical rainforests, tree seedlings growing close to their parent are more likely to die. This mortality, caused by soil organisms, helps to explain the coexistence and relative abundance of species.

Simple models of competition among species suggest that a few tree species, those that are best at exploiting limiting resources such as light and nutrients, should dominate ecosystems such as tropical rainforests1. However, rainforests support hundreds of apparently very similar tree species — typically a small number of abundant species and many rare ones. How do these species coexist? Why are some of them rare and others common? Complementary studies in Panama by Comita et al.2 (published in Science) and Mangan et al.3 (page 752 of this issue) show that a form of negative feedback driven by soil organisms can explain the relative abundance of tropical tree species, as well as promoting their coexistence.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Tree diversity in Panama.

CHRISTIAN ZIEGLER

References

  1. Tilman, D. Resource Competition and Community Structure (Princeton Univ. Press, 1982).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Comita, L. S., Muller-Landau, H. C., Aguilar, S. & Hubbell, S. P. Science 329, 330–332 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Mangan, S. A. et al. Nature 466, 752–755 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Janzen, D. H. Am. Nat. 104, 501–528 (1970).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Connell, J. H. in Dynamics of Populations (eds Den Boer, P. J. & Gradwell, G. R.) 298–312 (PUDOC, Wageningen, 1971).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Novotny, V. et al. Science 313, 1115–1118 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Harms, K. E., Wright, S. J., Calderón, O., Hernández, A. & Herre, E. A. Nature 404, 493–495 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Webb, C. O. & Peart, D. R. Ecology 80, 2006–2017 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Klironomos, J. N. Nature 417, 67–70 (2002).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Freckleton, R. P. & Lewis, O. T. Proc. R. Soc. B 273, 2909–2916 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Owen T. Lewis is in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. owen.lewis@zoo.ox.ac.uk,

    Owen T. Lewis

Authors
  1. Owen T. Lewis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lewis, O. Close relatives are bad news. Nature 466, 698–699 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/466698a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/466698a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing