The mechanisms which influence coexistence of specialist and generalist species in the same environment are a key focus of ecological theory. We use an agent-based model of community assembly to show that the available resource spectrum (distribution of resources along a niche axis) can play an important role in determining the specialist-generalist balance, even in the absence of spatial structure. Our results reveal a phenomenon that we term ‘resource spectrum engineering’, in which opportunistic specialists occupying small niches in a mostly generalist community can change the resource spectrum that is experienced by other species, in a way that disfavours generalists and causes a community-wide shift towards specialist strategies. More generally, this suggests a mechanism by which apparently minor changes in the specialist composition of an ecological community could have knock-on effects across the entire community.

中文翻译：

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专业物种进行的资源频谱工程可以改变专家与专家之间的平衡

在同一环境中影响专科物种和通才物种共存的机制是生态学理论的重点。我们使用基于代理的社区集会模型来表明，即使没有空间结构，可用的资源范围（资源沿利基轴的分布）也可以在确定专家与贵族的平衡中发挥重要作用。我们的研究结果揭示了一种我们称之为“资源频谱工程”的现象，在这种现象中，机会主义的专家在一个通才群体中占据着小生境，可以改变其他物种所经历的资源谱，从而不利于通才，并导致整个社区转向专业策略。更普遍，