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Predicting the stability of multitrophic communities in a variable world
Mallarie E Yeager1, Tarik C Gouhier1, A Randall Hughes1
1Marine and Environmental Science, Marine Science Center, Northeastern University, Nahant, Massachusetts, 01908, USA.
Ecology
|January 31, 2020
Summary
Local ecosystem size and dispersal limitation directly impact community stability, not just species richness. Understanding these factors is key for predicting ecological changes in a variable world.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Community Ecology
Background:
- Identifying factors that destabilize ecological communities is crucial for predicting environmental change impacts.
- While ecosystem size and dispersal are known to influence biodiversity, their direct effects on community stability are less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the direct and indirect effects of local ecosystem size and regional dispersal on multitrophic community stability.
- To determine if species richness mediates the relationship between ecosystem size, dispersal, and community stability.
Main Methods:
- Studied invertebrate and fish communities in coastal ponds.
- Assessed community instability in relation to local pond size and distance to the ocean (dispersal proxy).
Main Results:
- Community instability was negatively correlated with local pond size.
- Community instability was positively correlated with distance to the ocean, indicating dispersal limitation.
- These effects were direct, not mediated by species richness.
Conclusions:
- The diversity-stability relationship may be an epiphenomenon in these systems.
- Local and regional factors, historically linked to species richness, can directly predict multitrophic community stability.
- These findings offer a more direct approach to predicting community stability in changing environments.
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