Storage effect

The storage effect is a coexistence mechanism in the ecological theory of species coexistence that attempts to explain how many similar species can coexist within the same ecological community or guild. First proposed in the 1980s to explain coexistence among diverse coral reef fish communities, it has since been generalized to other kinds of ecological communities. The theory holds that in a changing environment no single species can be the best competitor under all conditions, so each species must have its own distinct response to varying conditions along with a way of buffering against the effects of bad years. The effect takes its name from the way each population stores the gains of good years or good patches to help it survive losses in bad years or patches, and it is notable among coexistence mechanisms for being directly measurable, in units of per-capita growth rate. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/