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106 results for “community stability”

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dryad36/100

Cryptogam plant community stability: warming weakens influences of species richness but enhances effects of evenness

Community stability is a fundamental factor sustaining ecosystem functioning and is affected by species richness and species evenness. The Arctic is warming more rapidly than other biomes, and cryptogam plant species (specifically lichens and bryophytes in this study) are major contributors to tundra biodiversity and productivity. However, to our knowledge, the impacts of warming on cryptogam community stability and the underlying mechanisms have not been investigated. We conducted a 13-year summer warming experiment in mesic birch hummock tundra vegetation near Daring Lake in the continental interior of low Arctic Canada, and recorded patterns of cryptogam species abundance in several different growing seasons. Warming decreased the stability of total community abundance, had no effects on species richness, but increased species evenness and species synchrony. Structural equation model analyses indicated that higher species richness was the principal factor associated with the stronger community abundance stability in the control plots, and that this effect was driven primarily by a negative correlation with species synchrony. By contrast, higher species evenness was the principal factor associated with the weakened community abundance stability in the warming plots, and this effect was driven primarily by a positive correlation with species synchrony. Our study suggests that climate warming could reduce cryptogam plant community stability in low Arctic tundra, and therefore decrease important ecosystem services including carbon storage and food availability to caribou in northern regions.

opencc-zeroJul 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Temporal stability of polymorphic Arctic charr parasite communities reflect sustained divergent trophic niches

Polymorphic Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus populations frequently display distinct differences in habitat use, diet and parasite communities. Changes to the relative species densities and composition of the wider fish community have the potential to alter the habitat-niche of sympatric Arctic charr populations. This study evaluated the temporal stability of the parasite community, diet and stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N) of three sympatric Arctic charr morphs (piscivore, benthivore and planktivore) from Loch Rannoch, Scotland, in relation to changes to the fish community. All Arctic charr morphs displayed distinct differences parasite communities, diet and stable isotope signatures over time, despite the establishment of four new trophically transmitted parasite taxa, and increased fish and zooplankton consumption by the piscivorous and planktivore morphs respectively. Native parasite prevalence also increased in all Arctic charr morphs. Overall, Loch Rannoch polymorphic Arctic charr morph populations have maintained their distinct trophic niches and parasite communities through time despite changes in the fish community. This result indicates that restocking of a native fish species has the potential to induce shifts in the parasite community and diet of Arctic charr morphs.

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Datasets for: Primary production and habitat stability organize marine communities

Aim: The emergence of pattern in the natural world can carry important messages about underlying processes. For example, collections of broadly similar terrestrial ecosystems have historically been categorized as biomes – groupings of systems which sort along energetic and structural process axes. In marine systems however, a similar classification of biomes has not emerged. The aim here is to develop an effective classification scheme for marine biomes and communities. Approach: Candidate predictor variables that could explain pattern and process in differentiating marine communities, such as light, nutrients, depth, etc., were collected from the existing literature with a systematic review. The candidate predictors were then evaluated in an inductive process, allowing community level observations to demonstrate patterns across marine biomes. Marine biomes and communities were identified a priori, and emergent patterns were evaluated quantitatively, via Principal Component ordination based on the vectors of explanatory predictors, and qualitatively via mapping. Conclusions: Gross primary production and substrate mobility not only effectively sort marine biomes, but also work on finer scales discriminating communities within biomes. As a result, these predictors were more effective in classifying marine communities than other scales, such as available light and nutrients. The richness of this classification is also demonstrated in revealing other patterns, such as the distribution of human impacts. The effectiveness of this mapping provides support for, but is not a test of, the hypothesis that primary production and substrate mobility are important underlying processes that interact to structure marine ecosystems.

opencc-zeroOct 2021View details →

dryad36/100

Community reorganization stabilizes freshwater ecosystems in intensively managed agricultural fields

<ol> <li>Sustainable intensification may depend on associating precision farming with the harnessing of ecological principles in crop fields and with integrating farms and non-farmed land in productive landscapes. Small wetlands could play an important role in both pursuits for having high per-unit-area rates of element cycling and species richness while deeply penetrating crop fields. However, their potential for ecosystem service provisioning is unlikely to be met if land management intensification promotes ecosystem destabilization in biomass production. </li> <li>We tested the consequences of land use intensification on various dimensions of freshwater ecosystem stability by means of a large-scale field experiment converting extensive pastures to intensive pastures and sugarcane plantations in Southeastern Brazil. Nested within experimental plots were 4,000-L mesocosms simulating ponds and puddles commonly found in productive landscapes. Mesocosms were monitored for basic physico-chemical parameters, nutrients, pesticides, phytoplankton standing crop, and the spontaneously colonizing biodiversity.</li> <li>3. Despite severe environmental change, the stability of sugarcane communities was no different from that of extensive and intensive pastures. This occurred because the local extinction of a sensitive top dragonfly predator following the application of vinasse and insecticide was compensated by colonization of a suite of more tolerant invertebrate mesopredators such as beetles and bugs. Community stability tended to increase with biomass asynchrony and species richness, evidencing a portfolio effect of biodiversity. Unfortunately, the species richness necessary to stabilize biomass production is unlikely to be available in many sugarcane fields and several other row crops.</li> <li> Synthesis and applications. Ponds and puddles could be effective centers of irradiation of ecosystem service provisioning in agricultural fields in terms of pest control; nutrient accumulation, cycling, and export back to fields; and habitat and stepping stones for freshwater biodiversity. However, the impoverished biodiversity that results from a combination of harsh local conditions and spatial isolation renders pond communities inherently unstable. Given the unlikely, immediate reduction in agrochemical use in much of the intensively managed crop area, a combination of large, protected source wetlands at the margin of fields and small constructed or naturally forming ponds and puddles in plantations could contribute to sustainable intensification.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroApr 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Data for Multidimensional diversity drives stability of mammal communities with large carnivores in temperate forests

R code and data for Multidimensional diversity drives stability of mammal communities with large carnivores in temperate forests

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Dominant species determine grazing effects on the stability of herbaceous community production at multiple scales in drylands

Sustainable provision of critical ecosystem services in drylands is reliant on their stability under anthropogenic disturbances. Livestock grazing and shrub encroachment are the primary drivers of disturbance that impact their biodiversity and production dynamics. However, the effects of grazing on the stability at multiple scales, particularly following the transition from grass-dominated to shrub-encroached drylands, is still largely unexplored. Here, we conducted comparable sheep-grazing experiments in two types of drylands (grass-dominated vs. shrub-encroached grasslands) on the Mongolia Plateau to explore the effects of grazing and shrub encroachment on biodiversity and stability at multiple scales. We examined how grazing affected the temporal stability of aboveground biomass in herbaceous communities in both grass-dominated and shrub-encroached grasslands, through two potential mechanisms: insurance effects and changes in the population-level stability of individual species. We found that an increase in sheep grazing intensity had significant and negative effects on insurance effects by decreasing both species asynchrony and spatial asynchrony but it had no effects on population stability, consequently leading to reductions in herbaceous community stability of the grasslands. However, grazing-increased insurance effects canceled out grazing-decreased population stability, contributing to no changes in the community stability of shrub-encroached grasslands. Likely, because grazing-induced reductions in the relative abundance of the dominant species were more noticeable in shrub-encroached grasslands than that of in grasslands. Moreover, the grazing-decreased abundance of dominant species was directly correlated to increases in insurance effects in shrub-encroached grasslands but not in grasslands, despite the positive relationships between population stability and the relative abundance of the dominant species in both grass-dominated and shrub-encroached drylands. Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that grazing can decrease the stability of herbaceous production in drylands, but this negative effect is attenuated with the transition from grasslands to shrub-encroached grasslands, suggesting that grazing effects on herbaceous community stability can be altered by shrub encroachment in drylands. Furthermore, the stability of dominant grasses plays a crucial role in stabilizing herbaceous communities, and should be considered in promoting sustainable ecosystem functioning and services in drylands.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

dryad36/100