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Asynchrony among local communities stabilises ecosystem function of metacommunities
Kevin R Wilcox1, Andrew T Tredennick2, Sally E Koerner3
1Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, 770 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK, 73019, USA.
Ecology Letters
|October 26, 2017
Summary
Ecosystem stability relies on species and local community asynchrony. Spatial heterogeneity is key for maintaining ecosystem services at larger scales.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Ecosystem Science
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Temporal stability of ecosystem functioning enhances ecosystem services predictability.
- Understanding stability drivers across spatial scales is crucial for land management and policy.
- This study investigates mechanisms of temporal stability in plant communities globally.
Discussion:
- Species asynchrony enhances local community stability.
- Asynchrony among local communities significantly boosts metacommunity stability (1-315%).
- Metacommunity stability enhancement by asynchrony correlates positively with metacommunity size.
Key Insights:
- Asynchronous species and local community responses stabilize ecosystem functions.
- Spatial heterogeneity, driven by asynchronous population fluctuations, is vital for large-scale ecosystem stability.
- The degree of metacommunity stabilization is linked to metacommunity size.
Outlook:
- Future research should focus on spatial heterogeneity to maintain ecosystem services.
- Informing land management and policy decisions requires understanding cross-scale stability mechanisms.
- This work provides a foundation for predicting ecosystem service stability under environmental change.
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