Diversity Emerging: From Competitive Exclusion to Neutral Coexistence in Ecosystems

In this communication we present a unifying framework to understand the emergence and maintenance of diversity in ecological systems, which combines R∗ theory (exploitative competition for resources) in an adaptive dynamic framework. Our model shows that competitive exclusion and neutral coexistence represent different regimes of the same adaptive dynamics. We point out that biodiversity generation through mutation and maintenance through neutrality are a consequence of the finite nature of habitats and limitation by resources. We show that this framework provides the theoretical foundations to understand the emergence and maintenance of diversity in microbial ecosystems and the growth advantage in stationary phase (GASP) succession in particular.