@article{fdi:010092227,
  title = {{B}eyond variance : simple random distributions are not a good proxy for intraspecific variability in systems with environmental structure},
  author = {{G}irard-{T}ercieux, {C}. and {V}ieilledent, {G}. and {C}lark, {A}. and {C}lark, {J}. {S}. and {C}ourbaud, {B}. and {F}ortunel, {C}laire and {K}unstler, {G}. and {P}{\'e}lissier, {R}apha{\¨e}l and {R}üger, {N}. and {M}ar{\'e}chaux, {I}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{T}he role of intraspecific variability ({IV}) in shaping community dynamics and species coexistence has been intensively discussed over the past decade and modelling studies have played an important role in that respect. {H}owever, these studies often implicitly assume that {IV} can be represented by independent random draws around species-specific mean parameters. {T}his major assumption has largely remained undiscussed, although a great part of observed {IV} is structured in space or time, in particular when environmental dimensions that influence individual performance are imperfectly characterised or unobserved in the field. {T}o test the impact of this strong assumption on the outcome of community dynamics models, we designed a simulation experiment where we varied the level of knowledge of the environment in virtual communities, resulting in different relative importance of explained vs unexplained spatial individual variation in performance. {W}e used a community dynamics simulator to generate communities where the unexplained individual variation is, or is not, added as an unstructured random noise. {C}ommunities simulated with unstructured {IV} never reached the community diversity and composition of those where all the variation was explained and structured (perfect knowledge model). {T}his highlights that incorporating unstructured {IV} (i.e. a random noise) to account for unexplained (but structured) variation can lead to incorrect simulations of community dynamics. {I}n addition, the effects of unstructured {IV} on community diversity and composition depended on the relative importance of structured vs unstructured {IV}, i.e. on the level of knowledge of the environment, which may partly explain the contrasting results of previous studies on the effect of {IV} on species coexistence. {I}n particular, the effect of unstructured {IV} on community diversity was positive when the proportion of structured {IV} vs unstructured {IV} in the model was low, but negative when this proportion was high. {T}his is because unstructured random noise can either limit the competitive exclusion of inferior competitors in low dimensions or destabilise tight niche partitioning in high dimension. {O}ur study suggests that it is crucial to account for the sources and structure of observed {IV} in real communities to better understand its effect on community assembly and properly include it in community dynamics models.},
  keywords = {},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{PEER} {C}ommunity {J}ournal},
  volume = {4},
  numero = {},
  pages = {100466 [19 ]},
  year = {2024},
  DOI = {10.24072/pcjournal.360},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010092227},
}