An invariability-area relationship sheds new light on the spatial scaling of ecological stability

Wang, Shaopeng; Loreau, Michel; Arnoldi, Jean Francois; Fang, Jingyun; Rahman, K. Abd; Tao, Shengli; Mazancourt, Claire de

doi:10.1038/ncomms15211

Cited by 75 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The average temporal correlation of plots of the same functional group (i.e., plots reflecting the same physiological response) is between 0.40 and 0.45 — this shows that their synchrony is far from perfect, and suggests that stochastic effects play an important role in decreasing synchrony. This corresponds well to the concept of decreasing temporal variability with spatial scale (Wang & Loreau, ; Wang et al., ) — the low level of synchrony, even between plots of the same type in close proximity, suggests that we can expect rapid stabilization of fluctuations (i.e., of CV) when we increase the area of sampled plots. Nevertheless, the fact that synchrony is not weaker between blocks than within blocks does not provide strong support for the idea of spatial decay of correlations (Wang & Loreau, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Competition among functional groups increases asynchrony of their temporal fluctuations in a temperate grassland

Lepš

Šmilauerová

Šmilauer

2019

J Vegetation Science

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Questions We asked whether the competition among community components (a) destabilizes individual components; (b) increases the asynchrony of their fluctuations; and (c) stabilizes the total community biomass. Location Seminatural meadow in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. Methods We used biomass fluctuation data from a 13‐year removal experiment. The plots used for this study contained, following experimental removal of other species, either mycorrhizal grasses only, mycorrhizal forbs only, or their mixture (grass “monocultures”, forb “monocultures”, and mixtures, respectively). Yearly peak aboveground biomass was available from ten blocks; biomass of the mixture plots was sorted into forbs and grasses. Temporal variability was characterized by coefficient of variation (CV) and synchrony by correlation coefficient, both calculated from the time series data. Results The variability of grass monocultures was higher than the variability of forb monocultures, which was slightly lower than the variability of mixtures. The variability of both grasses and forbs was higher in the mixture, where they are in competition with the other group, than in each of their respective monocultures. The correlation coefficients between the biomass of grass and forb monocultures within blocks were mostly positive, indicating that both groups tend to have similar physiological responses to weather fluctuations. The average correlation coefficient between the forbs and grasses in the mixture plots was significantly negative, thus reflecting the effect of competition between these two community components. The CV of the sum of forb and grass monocultures was similar to the CV of mixture plots. Conclusions Only competition between grasses and forbs leads to their negative mutual correlation, i.e., to compensatory dynamics. Our results support the hypothesis that competition has a destabilizing effect on individual community components (functional groups in our case) and increases asynchrony of their fluctuations. We have not found its stabilizing effect on the total biomass.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Competition among functional groups increases asynchrony of their temporal fluctuations in a temperate grassland

Lepš

Šmilauerová

Šmilauer

2019

J Vegetation Science

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“…Low variability can be seen as an indicator of a stable ecosystem. Therefore, to obtain a proper stability measure, we take the reciprocal of variability, which is called invariability (Haegeman et al, ; Wang et al, ),

I (A) = \frac{1}{{CV}_{t}^{2} (P (A))} = \frac{{mean}_{t}^{2} (P (A))}{{var}_{t} (P (A))} .

…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, temporal variability, defined as the coefficient of variation of total biomass, productivity, or another ecosystem property of interest, can be readily quantified for areas of different size (Wang & Loreau, ). Using invariability, the inverse of variability, as a measure of stability, Wang et al () proposed the invariability–area relationship (IAR) to describe the spatial scaling of ecosystem stability. They showed that, similarly to SARs, empirical IARs have a triphasic shape on a log‐log plot, suggesting a connection between SARs and IARs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between the spatial scaling of biodiversity and ecosystem stability

Delsol

Loreau

Haegeman

2018

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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“…Theoretically, ecosystem stability increases with spatial scale (Wang & Loreau, ; Wang et al., ). Here, we used:

log 10 false(S false) = c^{'} + z^{'} \times log 10 false(A false)

where S , c ′, z ′, and A are the ecosystem stability, intercept, slope, and area, respectively, to illustrate how scaling affects ecosystem stability (Figure a–c).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scale dependence of the diversity–stability relationship in a temperate grassland

Zhang

Loreau

et al. 2017

Journal of Ecology

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A positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem stability has been reported in many ecosystems; however, it has yet to be determined whether and how spatial scale affects this relationship. Here, for the first time, we assessed the effects of alpha, beta and gamma diversity on ecosystem stability and the scale dependence of the slope of the diversity-stability relationship.By employing a long-term (33 years) dataset from a temperate grassland, northern China, we calculated the all possible spatial scales with the complete combination from the basic 1-m plots.Species richness was positively associated with ecosystem stability through species asynchrony and overyielding at all spatial scales (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 m). Both alpha and beta diversity were positively associated with gamma stability.Moreover, the slope of the diversity-area relationship was significantly higher than that of the stability-area relationship, resulting in a decline of the slope of the diversity-stability relationship with increasing area. With the positive species diversity effect on ecosystem stability from small to large spatial scales, our findings demonstrate the need to maintain a high biodiversity and biotic heterogeneity as insurance against the risks incurred by ecosystems in the face of global environmental changes.

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An invariability-area relationship sheds new light on the spatial scaling of ecological stability

Cited by 75 publications

References 53 publications

Competition among functional groups increases asynchrony of their temporal fluctuations in a temperate grassland

Competition among functional groups increases asynchrony of their temporal fluctuations in a temperate grassland

The relationship between the spatial scaling of biodiversity and ecosystem stability

Scale dependence of the diversity–stability relationship in a temperate grassland

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