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Assembly of Plant Communities

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Ecology and the Environment

Part of the book series: The Plant Sciences ((PLANTSCI,volume 8))

Introduction

Community assembly is the study of the processes that shape the identity and abundance of species within ecological communities. Central to most studies of community assembly is the concept of a species pool that is larger in geographic scope than the local community under study. The species pool contains potential colonists of the community, and many studies in this area focus on developing an understanding of the role of dispersal, responses to abiotic conditions, and biotic interactions in shaping local assemblages. Thus, community assembly considers both the ecological interactions that shape local communities and the evolutionary and biogeographic processes that lead to variation in the diversity and composition of species pools across the globe.

A Brief History of the Development of Community Assembly Concepts

There are two persistent and central concepts in the study of community assembly. The first is the “species pool ,” defined as...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, Biology Psychology Bldg 144 , Room 1210, College Park, 20742, MD, USA

    Nathan J. B. Kraft

  2. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Building, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA

    David D. Ackerly

Authors
  1. Nathan J. B. Kraft
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  2. David D. Ackerly
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nathan J. B. Kraft .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources and the Environment and Laboratory for Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Russell K. Monson

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Kraft, N.J.B., Ackerly, D.D. (2014). Assembly of Plant Communities. In: Monson, R. (eds) Ecology and the Environment. The Plant Sciences, vol 8. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7501-9_1

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