Research Topic

Metacommunities

Historically, the structure of local communities was thought to be primarily influenced by local environmental and biotic factors. The metacommunity perspective considers the importance of regional processes such as dispersal and regional heterogeneity. The idea that variation in dispersal rates can influence local community structure dates back to the theory of island biogeography and became central to community ecology after Levins defined metapopulations. Thirty years later, ecologists synthesized these approaches into a common framework under metacommunity ecology (Leibold et al. 2004), using four conceptual models (patch-dynamic, species-sorting, mass-effect, and neutral) to describe how competition, heterogeneity, dispersal, and neutrality shape community assembly and dynamics.

Most of my research has focused on two of these paradigms: the source-sink (mass-effect) and the competition-colonization trade-off (patch dynamics). I also worked on trophic metacommunities and on disentangling the drivers of metacommunity structure across spatial scales. This research resulted in reviews and integrative approaches, modelling, analysis of empirical datasets and experimental approaches with microorganisms and plants.

Source-Sink Metacommunities

  1. Mouquet N., Mahaut L., Thuiller W., Auber A., Casajus N., Enquist B.J., Ga"uz`ere P., Loiseau N., Mouillot D., Munoz F., Vill'eger S., Violle C. (2025). Spatial Insurance of Distinct Ecological Functions. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.70266

  2. Mouquet N., Gravel D., Massol F., Calcagno V. (2012). Extending the concept of keystone species to communities and ecosystems. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12014

  3. Matias M.G., Mouquet N., Chase J.M. (2012). Dispersal stochasticity mediates species richness in source-sink metacommunities. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2012.20479.x

  4. Bouvier T., Venail P., Pommier T., Bouvier C., Barbera C., Mouquet N. (2012). Contrasted Effects of Diversity and Immigration on Ecological Insurance in Marine Bacterioplankton Communities. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037620

  5. Mouquet N., Matthiessen B., Miller T.E.X., Gonzalez A. (2011). Extinction Debt in Source-Sink Metacommunities. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017567

  6. Venail P.A., MacLean R.C., Meynard C.N. and Mouquet N. (2010). Dispersal scales up the biodiversity-productivity relationship in an experimental source-sink metacommunity. Proc. R. Soc. B, 277, 2339–2345, doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.2104

  7. Venail P., MacLean R.C., Bouvier T., Brockhurst M.A., Hochberg M., Mouquet N. (2008). Diversity and productivity peak at intermediate dispersal rate in evolving metacommunities. Nature, doi.org/10.1038/nature06554

  8. Mouquet N., Miller T.E.X., Daufresne T., Kneitel J.M. (2006). Consequences of varying regional heterogeneity in source-sink metacommunities. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/j.2006.0030-1299.14582.x

  9. Mouquet N., Leadley P., M'eriguet J., Loreau M. (2004). Immigration and local competition in herbaceous plant communities: a three-year seed-sowing experiment. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2004.12644.x

  10. Mouquet N., Loreau M. (2003). Community Patterns in Source-Sink Metacommunities. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/378857

  11. Mouquet N., Loreau M. (2002). Coexistence in Metacommunities: The Regional Similarity Hypothesis. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/338996

  12. Loreau M., Mouquet N., Gonzalez A. (2003). Biodiversity as spatial insurance in heterogeneous landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2235465100

  13. Loreau M., Mouquet N. (1999). Immigration and the Maintenance of Local Species Diversity. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/303252

Competition-Colonization Trade-off

  1. Livingston G., Matias M.G., Calcagno V., Barbera C., Combe M., Leibold M.A., Mouquet N. (2012). Competition-colonization dynamics in experimental bacterial metacommunities. Nature Communications, doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2239

  2. Calcagno V., Mouquet N., Jarne P., David P. (2006). Coexistence in a metacommunity: the competition-colonization trade-off is not dead. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00930.x

Trophic Metacommunity

  1. Calcagno V., Massol F., Mouquet N., Jarne P., David P. (2011). Constraints on food chain length arising from regional metacommunity dynamics. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0112

  2. Gravel D., Canard E., Guichard F., Mouquet N. (2011). Persistence Increases with Diversity and Connectance in Trophic Metacommunities. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019374

  3. Gravel D., Guichard F., Loreau M., Mouquet N. (2010). Source and sink dynamics in meta-ecosystems. Ecology, doi.org/10.1890/09-0843.1

  4. Gravel D., Mouquet N., Loreau M., Guichard F. (2010). Patch Dynamics, Persistence, and Species Coexistence in Metaecosystems. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/655426

  5. Loreau M., Mouquet N., Holt R.D. (2003). Meta-ecosystems: a theoretical framework for a spatial ecosystem ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00483.x

Disentangling the Drivers of Metacommunity Structure

  1. Jordani M.X., Mouquet N., Casatti L., Menin M., Rossa-Feres D.d.C., Albert C.H. (2019). Intraspecific and interspecific trait variability in tadpole meta-communities from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. Ecology and Evolution, doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5031

  2. Henckel L., Meynard C.N., Devictor V., Mouquet N., Bretagnolle V. (2019). On the relative importance of space and environment in farmland bird community assembly. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213360

  3. Moritz C., Meynard C.N., Devictor V., Guizien K., Labrune C., Guarini J., Mouquet N. (2013). Disentangling the role of connectivity, environmental filtering, and spatial structure on metacommunity dynamics. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2013.00377.x

  4. Meynard C.N., Lavergne S., Boulangeat I., Garraud L., Es J.V., Mouquet N., Thuiller W. (2013). Disentangling the drivers of metacommunity structure across spatial scales. Journal of Biogeography, doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12116

Integrative Approaches & Reviews

  1. Mouquet N., Mahaut L., Thuiller W., Auber A., Casajus N., Enquist B.J., Ga"uz`ere P., Loiseau N., Mouillot D., Munoz F., Vill'eger S., Violle C. (2025). Spatial Insurance of Distinct Ecological Functions. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.70266

  2. Warren B.H., Ricklefs R.E., Thebaud C., Gravel D., Mouquet N. (2019). How Consideration of Islands Has Inspired Mainstream Ecology: Links Between the Theory of Island Biogeography and Some Other Key Theories. Elsevier eBooks, doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11788-9

  3. Fournier B., Mouquet N., Leibold M.A., Gravel D. (2016). An integrative framework of coexistence mechanisms in competitive metacommunities. Ecography, doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02137

  4. Massol F., Altermatt F., Gounand I., Gravel D., Leibold M.A., Mouquet N. (2016). How life-history traits affect ecosystem properties: effects of dispersal in meta-ecosystems. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/oik.03893

  5. Hubert N., Calcagno V., Etienne R.S., Mouquet N. (2015). Metacommunity speciation models and their implications for diversification theory. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12458

  6. Warren B.H., Simberloff D., Ricklefs R.E., Aguilee R., Condamine F.L., Gravel D., Morlon H., Mouquet N., Rosindell J., Casquet J., Conti E., Cornuault J., Fernandez-Palacios J.M., Hengl T., Norder S.J., Rijsdijk K.F., Sanmartin I., Strasberg D., Triantis K.A., Valente L., Whittaker R.J., Gillespie R.G., Emerson B.C., Thebaud C. (2015). Islands as model systems in ecology and evolution: prospects fifty years after MacArthur-Wilson. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12398

  7. Loreau M., Daufresne T., Gonzalez A., Gravel D., Guichard F., Leroux S., Loeuille N., Massol F., Mouquet N. (2012). Unifying sources and sinks in ecology and <scp>E</scp>arth sciences. Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, doi.org/10.1111/brv.12003

  8. Mouquet N., Gravel D., Massol F., Calcagno V. (2012). Extending the concept of keystone species to communities and ecosystems. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12014

  9. Poisot T., Canard E., Mouillot D., Mouquet N., Gravel D. (2012). The dissimilarity of species interaction networks. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12002

  10. Logue J.B., Mouquet N., Peter H., Hillebrand H. (2011). Empirical approaches to metacommunities: a review and comparison with theory. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.04.009

  11. Massol F., Gravel D., Mouquet N., Cadotte M.W., Fukami T., Leibold M.A. (2011). Linking community and ecosystem dynamics through spatial ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01588.x

  12. Mouquet N., Hoopes M.F. and Amarasekare P. (2005). The world is patchy and heterogeneous! Trade-off and source sink dynamics in competitive metacommunities. In: Metacommunities: Spatial dynamics and ecological communities. Eds M. Holyoak, M.A. Leibold and R. Holt. Chicago University Press.

  13. Holyoak M., Leibold M.A., Mouquet N. and Holt R.D. (2005). Metacommunities: A framework for large-scale community ecology. In: Metacommunities: Spatial dynamics and ecological communities. Eds M. Holyoak, M.A. Leibold and R.D. Holt. Chicago University Press.

  14. Loreau M., Mouquet N. and Holt R.D. (2005). From metacommunities to meta-ecosystems. In: Metacommunities: Spatial dynamics and ecological communities. Eds M. Holyoak, M.A. Leibold and R.D. Holt. Chicago University Press.

  15. Chase J., Amarasekare P., Cottenie K., Gonzalez A., Holt R., Holyoak M., Hoopes M.F., Law R., Leibold M.A., Loreau M., Mouquet N., Shurin J. and Tilman D. (2005). Competing theories for competitive metacommunities. In: Metacommunities: Spatial dynamics and ecological communities. Eds M. Holyoak, M.A. Leibold and R.D. Holt. Chicago University Press.

  16. Amarasekare P., Hoopes M.F., Mouquet N., Holyoak M. (2004). Mechanisms of Coexistence in Competitive Metacommunities. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/422858

  17. Leibold M.A., Holyoak M., Mouquet N., Amarasekare P., Chase J.M., Hoopes M.F., Holt R.D., Shurin J.B., Law R., Tilman D., Loreau M., Gonzalez A. (2004). The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00608.x

  18. Loreau M., Mouquet N., Holt R.D. (2003). Meta-ecosystems: a theoretical framework for a spatial ecosystem ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00483.x

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