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Testing the keystone community concept: effects of landscape, patch removal, and environment on metacommunity
Emlyn J Resetarits1, Sara E Cathey2, Mathew A Leibold1
1Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA.
Ecology
|October 10, 2017
Summary
Removing local patches did not alter overall community metrics but shifted assembly processes. This suggests local patches can influence regional dynamics, though keystone community evidence remains elusive.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Metacommunity Dynamics
- Community Ecology
Background:
- Regional processes influencing local patches are well-understood.
- The impact of local patches on regional processes, particularly via the keystone community concept (KCC), is less clear.
- The KCC proposes certain patches disproportionately affect the entire metacommunity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally investigate the keystone community concept (KCC).
- To assess the effect of local patch removal on metacommunity structure and assembly.
- To determine if specific local patches exert disproportionate influence on regional processes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized replicate protist microcosm metacommunities for experimentation.
- Employed single-patch removal as the primary experimental manipulation.
- Analyzed changes in community richness, evenness, biomass, and assembly drivers.
Main Results:
- Single-patch removals did not significantly alter average community richness, evenness, or biomass.
- Patch removal led to metacommunities being assembled less by local conditions.
- Spatial effects and stochastic factors became more dominant in metacommunity assembly post-removal.
Conclusions:
- Local patch removal can induce substantial regional effects on ecological structure.
- The study provides indirect evidence for the influence of local patches on regional processes.
- Further research is required to definitively identify and confirm keystone communities.
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