Nestedness, niche metrics and temporal dynamics of a metacommunity in a dynamic natural model system

Prediction of extinction and colonization rates for whole species assemblages emerges as an urgent task for ecology. We hypothesized that nestedness of species assemblage reflects differential ability of species to occupy sites and of sites to support species. If correct, a nested ordering of species and sites should condense long‐term dynamics of metacommunities. To test this we characterized the differential ability of species to use habitat …