Allee effects and species co-existence in an environment where resource abundance varies

Explaining patterns of diversity has long been a central focus in ecology. One of the most challenging problems has been to understand how species occupying similar ecological niches can co-exist because, with limited resources, demographic stochasticity is expected to lead to the eventual extinction of all but one of them. The Allee effect has been widely studied for its impact on the extinction risk of rare species. Its potential role in promoting co-existence has received less attention. Here, we present a model in which two species compete for a single resource across a continuous landscape. We show that Allee effects can promote their co-existence when a simple condition is met: resources are distributed unevenly across space. Furthermore, the Allee effect can stabilize co-existence despite the reduction in population density and consequent increase in demographic stochasticity that it causes. The Allee effect might, therefore, be an important force maintaining diverse communities.