Non-neutral theory of biodiversity

We present a non-neutral stochastic model for the dynamics taking place in a meta-community ecosystems in the presence of migration. The model provides a framework for describing the emergence of multiple ecological scenarios and behaves in two extreme limits either as the unified neutral theory of biodiversity or as the Bak-Sneppen model. Interestingly, the model shows a condensation phase transition where one species becomes the dominant one, the diversity in the ecosystems is strongly reduced and the ecosystem is non-stationary. This phase transition extends the principle of competitive exclusion to open ecosystems and might be relevant for the study of the impact of invasive species in native ecologies. Copyright (c) EPLA, 2009