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Local biodiversity change reflects interactions among changing abundance, evenness, and richness
Shane A Blowes1,2, Gergana N Daskalova3,4, Maria Dornelas5
1German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany.
Ecology
|July 23, 2022
Summary
Understanding biodiversity change requires examining species abundance, evenness, and richness together. Their interdependencies, especially over time, significantly influence local biodiversity dynamics in the Anthropocene.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Biodiversity Science
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Biodiversity metrics often combine species presence and abundance data.
- Limited understanding exists regarding the covariation between changes in species abundance, evenness, and richness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interdependencies between changes in abundance, evenness, and richness in ecological assemblages.
- To determine how these components influence local biodiversity variation across space and time.
Main Methods:
- Utilized individual-based rarefaction curves to model relationships between abundance, evenness, and richness changes.
- Analyzed over 1100 ecological assemblages sampled temporally and spatially.
Main Results:
- Richness changes were amplified when abundance and evenness changed concordantly; opposing changes constrained richness variation.
- Spatial variation showed decoupled abundance, evenness, and richness, with weak pairwise relationships.
- Temporal variation revealed strong correlations between richness and relative abundance changes, indicating greater inertia.
Conclusions:
- Local biodiversity variation is often driven by shifts in species relative abundances, not static distributions.
- The interplay between relative and total abundance changes frequently dictates the magnitude of richness alterations.
- Accounting for these interdependencies is crucial for understanding biodiversity dynamics in the Anthropocene.
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