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Understanding diversity-synchrony-stability relationships in multitrophic communities.

Griffin Srednick¹, Stephen E Swearer²

¹National Centre for Coasts and Climate, School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. gsrednick@student.unimelb.edu.au.

Nature Ecology & Evolution

|June 5, 2024

Summary

Biodiversity loss impacts ecosystem stability. Most studies focus on one trophic level, but multitrophic research reveals complex diversity-synchrony-stability (DSS) interactions crucial for community stability.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Biodiversity Science
Community Ecology

Background:

Understanding biodiversity's impact on ecosystem stability is vital due to global species loss.
Existing research on biodiversity-stability relationships often overlooks multitrophic interactions, focusing on single trophic levels.
Most studies analyze diversity-synchrony-stability (DSS) in terrestrial plant communities, with limited exploration of multitrophic dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

To globally analyze existing diversity-synchrony-stability (DSS) studies and identify biases.
To investigate multitrophic DSS relationships in marine algae-herbivore assemblages.
To explore how species diversity and synchrony interact to influence community stability across different biomes.

Main Methods:

Conducted a global meta-analysis of 420 diversity-synchrony-stability (DSS) studies.
Applied a multitrophic framework to five long-term marine datasets (tropical and temperate).
Examined algae-herbivore interactions to assess the effects of diversity and synchrony on stability.

Main Results:

74% of reviewed DSS studies were monotrophic, primarily focusing on terrestrial plants, with 91% showing stabilizing effects of asynchrony.
Multitrophic studies (26%) showed mixed effects of synchrony on stability across biomes.
In algae-herbivore systems, diversity reduced within-group synchrony; herbivore synchrony decreased stability, while algal synchrony's effect varied by system.

Conclusions:

Multitrophic interactions significantly complicate diversity-synchrony-stability relationships compared to monotrophic studies.
Algal and herbivore diversity influence synchrony differently across tropical and temperate marine systems.
Further multitrophic research is essential for a comprehensive understanding of how biodiversity loss affects ecosystem stability.