Assembly rules within a contingent ecology

Abstract

Ecologists have searched for general principles, or assembly rules, which determine how species combine to form communities. Two major strands of research highlight the interaction of assembly rules operating at different levels of community organisation, and within uncertain local and historical contingencies. Here, we review the literature on community assembly within the context of three principal determinants dispersal constraints, environmental constraints and internal dynamics. This classification separates external factors (dispersal and environmental constraints) from internal processes (internal dynamics). We assert that assembly rules are general, deterministic and mechanistic, and..