A model integrating patch dynamics, competing species and the intermediate disturbance hypothesis

Barnes and Roderick [Barnes, B., Roderick, M., 2004. An ecological framework linking scales across space and time based on self-thinning. Theor. Population Biol. 66, 113-118] developed a mathematical model of patch dynamics, based on a time-dependent self-thinning mechanism. In this paper, we consider the ramifications of their modelling approach, in terms of its agreement with the concepts of competing species and the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. When considering more than one species we show that a form of the competing species model emerges as a natural consequence of the mathematics, with our model differing from traditional competition models in its derivation and nonlinear, time-dependent per capita growth rate. Further, we show that when disturbance is included in the formulation, the general predictions are in agreement with the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.