Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Core-satellite species hypothesis and native versus exotic species in secondary succession

January 13, 2015

A number of hypotheses exist to explain species’ distributions in a landscape, but these hypotheses are not frequently utilized to explain the differences in native and exotic species distributions. The core-satellite species (CSS) hypothesis predicts species occupancy will be bimodally distributed, i.e., many species will be common and many species will be rare, but does not explicitly consider exotic species distributions. The parallel dynamics (PD) hypothesis predicts that regional occurrence patterns of exotic species will be similar to native species. Together, the CSS and PD hypotheses may increase our understanding of exotic species’ distribution relative to natives. We selected an old field undergoing secondary succession to study the CSS and PD hypotheses in conjunction with each other. The ratio of exotic to native species (richness and abundance) was observed through 17 years of secondary succession. We predicted species would be bimodally distributed and that exotic:native species ratios would remain steady or decrease through time under frequent disturbance. In contrast to the CSS and PD hypotheses, native species occupancies were not bimodally distributed at the site, but exotic species were. The exotic:native species ratios for both richness (E:Nrichness) and abundance (E:Ncover) generally decreased or remained constant throughout supporting the PD hypothesis. Our results suggest exotic species exhibit metapopulation structure in old field landscapes, but that metapopulation structures of native species are disrupted, perhaps because these species are dispersal limited in the fragmented landscape.

Publication Year 2015
Title Core-satellite species hypothesis and native versus exotic species in secondary succession
DOI 10.1007/s11258-015-0446-z
Authors Kelsey A. Martinez, David J. Gibson, Beth A. Middleton
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Plant Ecology
Index ID 70145996
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization National Wetlands Research Center