Harvesting and Limiting Similarity

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Abstract
It is shown that harvesting (which can also be thought of as predation without switching or as an effect of certain environmental degradations) of a (sub)community, which consists of several competitors partitioning some resource in a randomly fluctuating environment, causes a decrease in limiting similarity, hence a decrease in the number of species which can coexist. Computer simulations which elucidate the dynamical behavior in such a situation are briefly described. The various possibilities for diversity changes due to harvesting or predation are summarized and some difficulties in interpreting the relevant field data are discussed.