Diversity, functional similarity, and top-down control drive synchronization and the reliability of ecosystem...

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Ecosystem Dynamics
• Community Ecology

Background:

• Ecosystem function reliability is often linked to biodiversity, with the assumption that community biomass is less variable than individual species biomass.
• This assumption holds true only when species dynamics are compensatory or independent, not when they synchronize within trophic levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how species richness, functional distance, and predator-prey interactions influence trophic synchronization.
• To clarify the mechanisms driving community biomass variability and its impact on ecosystem function reliability.

Main Methods:

• The study theoretically integrates factors like species richness, functional traits, competition, and predation.
• It analyzes how these factors affect the synchronization of population dynamics within and across trophic levels.

Main Results:

• Intense competition can lead to compensatory prey dynamics, but increasing species richness and functional similarity can synchronize predators.
• Strong top-down control, driven by low functional distance and high predator growth potential, synchronizes both predators and prey.
• This synchronization maximizes community biomass variability, negatively impacting ecosystem reliability.

Conclusions:

• Species richness, functional traits, and predator-prey dynamics interact to determine trophic synchronization.
• Synchronization, particularly under strong top-down control, disrupts the link between biodiversity and ecosystem reliability.
• Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental changes.