Ecologists have long agreed that to coexist species must be sufficiently different (1,2). This worldview was challenged when Stephen Hubbell published his neutral theory of biodiversity showing that species that are essentially equal should also be able to evade competitive exclusion (3). Although this neutral theory inspired a fresh look at biodiversity, it also met resistance as it seemed to violate the deeply held belief that all species are fundamentally different. Interestingly, a harmonious combination of niche differentiation and neutrality can emerge naturally in simulated communities, thus suggesting a way of unifying the niche and neutral view (4). A peculiar prediction of this theory of emergent neutrality is that species should be distributed over niche space in a lumpy way, a pattern that is indeed often observed in nature (5⇓⇓⇓–9). In this view the lumps correspond to niches, while species within lumps are essentially more of the same, reflecting two alternative ways for species to coexist: being sufficiently different or being sufficiently similar (Fig. 1). A study in PNAS now lends important support to this unifying theory by showing its compatibility with Tilman’s widely embraced theory of competition for resources (10).

中文翻译：

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走向统一的生物多样性理论


生态学家长期以来一致认为，要共存，物种必须有足够的差异 (1,2)。当斯蒂芬·哈贝尔（Stephen Hubbell）发表了他的中性生物多样性理论时，这种世界观受到了挑战，该理论表明本质上平等的物种也应该能够避免竞争排斥（3）。尽管这一中立理论激发了人们对生物多样性的新认识，但它也遇到了阻力，因为它似乎违反了所有物种本质上不同的根深蒂固的信念。有趣的是，在模拟社区中，生态位差异化和中立性的和谐结合可以自然出现，从而提出了一种统一生态位和中立观点的方法（4）。这种新兴中性理论的一个独特预测是，物种应该以块状方式分布在生态位空间中，这种模式确实在自然界中经常观察到（5⇓⇓⇓–9）。在这种观点中，块对应于生态位，而块内的物种本质上更加相同，反映了物种共存的两种替代方式：足够不同或足够相似（图1）。 《美国国家科学院院刊》的一项研究现在为这一统一理论提供了重要支持，表明该理论与蒂尔曼广泛接受的资源竞争理论相兼容 (10)。