Community-level competition: asymmetrical dominance.

Abstract

Ecological competition between entire communities of species occurs only when geographic barriers are suddenly removed. Recent empirical analysis suggests that, following the disappearance of a barrier, one community may swamp a second community, causing most or all of its species to go extinct. I provide theoretical insight into this result by showing that two "naive" competition communities mix randomly following the removal of a barrier. However, if the two communities have been "assembled," or self-organized, through a history of competitive exclusion, the communities are likely to battle as coordinated armies, with one or the other side ultimately claiming the entire landscape.