Although most models conceptualize a metacommunity as a collection of habitat patches embedded in a matrix that is not hospitable to life, this assumption is not met in most ecological systems. Frequently the matrix is at least somewhat hospitable to the species that normally reside in the habitat patches. This is especially evident in host-microbiome systems, which represent an important frontier for community and ecosystem ecology. Instead, we model the matrix as hospitable to life and as a consequence expand the dispersal process to three life-history traits. We modify an existing patch dynamic metacommunity model to incorporate the possibility of a hospitable matrix, and expand the process of dispersal to include moving out of the patch, surviving/growing in the matrix, and moving into a new patch.
Results/Conclusions
With these alterations, we find that it is substantially harder for a dispersal specialist to persist in a system with a hospitable matrix compared to an inhospitable matrix. In addition, we find that the traits required to successfully disperse in the hospitable system are different from those required in the inhospitable system. In an inhospitable matrix, traits that allow a species to successfully colonize a new patch are more beneficial to a dispersal specialist than those that allow mass migration out of a patch. In a hospitable matrix, we observe the opposite pattern. If these types of traits trade off (which they often do) this could important differences in selection patterns in hospitable versus inhospitable matrix environments. We conclude that the qualities of the matrix can have important effects on community assembly, and relaxing matrix assumptions allows a broader range of applications for metacommunity ecology, including its use for host-microbe systems.