New Paper: Community assembly patterns in Bermuda Anoles

In this new Ecology paper led by James Stroud at Wash U, we couple widespread surveys with historical data to reveal a striking contingency in the assembly of an invasive anole community in Bermuda. Fine-scale ecological data revealed that the asymmetrical invisibility observed in Bermudian anoles arises from species-specific tendencies/abilities to shift their ecological niche. Species with shifted resource use can invade, even when ecologically similar species are incumbent. However, species with static resource use can persist in invaded habitats but do not appear to be able to expand their range further. An interesting glimpse into the dynamics of community assembly and species coexistence.