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Divergent biodiversity change within ecosystems.

Anne E Magurran¹, Amy E Deacon^2,3, Faye Moyes²

¹Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, Scotland, United Kingdom; aem1@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|February 15, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Community size stability may hide significant biodiversity changes. Temporal alpha-diversity remained stable, but temporal beta-diversity varied, indicating decoupled biodiversity dynamics in ecosystems.

Keywords:

biodiversity change community-level regulation freshwater temporal turnover tropical ecology

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Biodiversity Research

Background:

Ecosystems face unprecedented pressure, necessitating a clearer understanding of contemporary biodiversity changes.
Community size regulation is increasingly recognized, highlighting the need to understand community dynamics.
Temporal turnover may underpin stable community sizes, prompting investigation into biodiversity dimensions.

Purpose of the Study:

To assess the covariation between temporal alpha-diversity and temporal beta-diversity within and among natural assemblages.
To determine if directional changes in temporal alpha-diversity and temporal beta-diversity exceed baseline levels in a tropical freshwater ecosystem.

Main Methods:

Utilized a multiassemblage dataset including vertebrates, invertebrates, and unicellular plants from a tropical freshwater ecosystem.
Employed cyclic shift randomization to analyze changes in temporal alpha-diversity and temporal beta-diversity over a 5-year period.

Main Results:

Temporal alpha-diversity remained largely stable across most assemblages during the 5-year study.
Temporal beta-diversity exhibited more prevalent changes, indicating significant species turnover.
The two diversity dimensions (alpha and beta) were found to be decoupled at both within- and among-assemblage levels.

Conclusions:

Community stability in size may mask underlying dynamic changes in biodiversity composition.
Elevated temporal beta-diversity suggests significant species turnover, challenging the notion of static communities.
Further research is crucial to understand how turnover supports ecosystem regulation and when high temporal beta-diversity may threaten community integrity.