Dispersal frequency affects local biomass production by controlling local diversity

Matthiessen, Birte; Hillebrand, Helmut

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00916.x

Cited by 115 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This was achieved for light (except for ultraviolet radiation that was excluded by the roof), water temperature, salinity and nutrient concentrations. By using unfiltered seawater and letting water exit through an overflow, the sediment remained an open system (Matthiessen & Hillebrand 2006), allowing immigration and emigration of larvae and spores. By using undisturbed sediment, the natural organism diversity, as well as heterogeneity (patchiness) could be retained.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of microphytobenthos in recovery of functions in a shallow-water sediment system after hypoxic events

Larson

Sundbäck²

2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of microphytobenthos in recovery of functions in a shallow-water sediment system after hypoxic events

Larson

Sundbäck²

2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…But, we argue that if the only source of niche differentiation is regional (as in the source sink models), then the scale of the positive BEF should be regional. The scarce experiments conducted in source-sink systems have revealed a positive effect of diversity on productivity at both local (Matthiessen & Hillebrand 2006) and regional scales (Venail et al 2008). We are unaware of any experimental study simultaneously addressing the BEF relationship at both local and regional scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersal scales up the biodiversity–productivity relationship in an experimental source-sink metacommunity

et al. 2010

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The influence of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning is a major concern of ecological research. However, the biodiversity -ecosystem functioning relationship has very often been studied independently from the mechanisms allowing coexistence. By considering the effects of dispersal and niche partitioning on diversity, the metacommunity perspective predicts a spatial scale-dependence of the shape of the relationship. Here, we present experimental evidence of such scale-dependent patterns. After approximately 500 generations of diversification in a spatially heterogeneous environment, we measured functional diversity (FD) and productivity at both local and regional scales in experimental source-sink metacommunities of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25. At the regional scale, environmental heterogeneity yielded high levels of FD and we observed a positive correlation between diversity and productivity. At the local scale, intermediate dispersal increased local FD through a mass effect but there was no correlation between diversity and productivity. These experimental results underline the importance of considering the mechanisms maintaining biodiversity and the appropriate spatial scales in understanding its relationship with ecosystem functioning.

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“…Thus, the microcosm communities cover substantial biological complexity in terms of more structured trophic levels and species interactions that cannot be entirely captured by any model (24) (Materials and Methods and SI Materials and Methods). Previous microbial experiments found that spatiotemporal heterogeneity among local communities induced by disturbance (25) and dispersal (26)(27)(28) events has a strong influence on species coexistence and biodiversity. In previous works (20,22,26,28) the focus was mostly on dispersal distance, dispersal rates, and dispersal kernels and how they affect diversity patterns in relatively simple landscapes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous microbial experiments found that spatiotemporal heterogeneity among local communities induced by disturbance (25) and dispersal (26-28) events has a strong influence on species coexistence and biodiversity. In previous works (20,22,26,28) the focus was mostly on dispersal distance, dispersal rates, and dispersal kernels and how they affect diversity patterns in relatively simple landscapes. These factors, directly affecting the history of community assembly (29, 30), introduce variability in community composition in terms of abundances and local species richness.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dendritic connectivity controls biodiversity patterns in experimental metacommunities

Carrara

Altermatt²,

Rodrı́guez-Iturbe³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

311

377

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Biological communities often occur in spatially structured habitats where connectivity directly affects dispersal and metacommunity processes. Recent theoretical work suggests that dispersal constrained by the connectivity of specific habitat structures, such as dendrites like river networks, can explain observed features of biodiversity, but direct evidence is still lacking. We experimentally show that connectivity per se shapes diversity patterns in microcosm metacommunities at different levels. Local dispersal in isotropic lattice landscapes homogenizes local species richness and leads to pronounced spatial persistence. On the contrary, dispersal along dendritic landscapes leads to higher variability in local diversity and among-community composition. Although headwaters exhibit relatively lower species richness, they are crucial for the maintenance of regional biodiversity. Our results establish that spatially constrained dendritic connectivity is a key factor for community composition and population persistence.A major aim of community ecology is to identify processes that define large-scale biodiversity patterns (1-8). For simplified landscapes, often described geometrically by linear or lattice structures, a variety of local environmental factors have been brought forward as the elements creating and maintaining diversity among habitats (9-12). Many highly diverse landscapes, however, exhibit hierarchical spatial structures that are shaped by geomorphological processes and neither linear nor 2D environmental matrices may be appropriate to describe biodiversity of species living within dendritic ecosystems (13,14). Furthermore, in many environments intrinsic disturbance events contribute to spatiotemporal heterogeneity (14, 15). Riverine ecosystems, among the most diverse habitats on earth (16), represent an outstanding example of such mechanisms (7,(17)(18)(19).Here, we investigate the effects of directional dispersal imposed by the habitat-network structure on the biodiversity of metacommunities (MCs), by conducting a laboratory experiment using aquatic microcosms. Experiments were conducted in 36-well culture plates (Fig. 1), thus imposing by construction a metacommunity structure (20, 21): Each well hosted a local community (LC) within the whole landscape and dispersal occurred by periodic transfer of culture medium among connected LCs (22), following two different geometries (Materials and Methods, Fig. S1, and SI Materials and Methods). We compared spatially heterogeneous MCs following a river network (RN) geometry (Fig. 1D), with spatially homogeneous MCs, in which every LC has a 2D lattice of four nearest neighbors (2D) (Fig. 1E). The coarse-grained RN landscape is derived from a scheme (13) known to reproduce the scaling properties observed in real river systems (Fig. 1A).To single out the effects of connectivity, we deliberately avoided reproducing other geomorphic features of real river networks, such as the bias in downstream dispersal, the growing habitat capacity with accumulated contributing...

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Dispersal frequency affects local biomass production by controlling local diversity

Cited by 115 publications

References 50 publications

Role of microphytobenthos in recovery of functions in a shallow-water sediment system after hypoxic events

Role of microphytobenthos in recovery of functions in a shallow-water sediment system after hypoxic events

Dispersal scales up the biodiversity–productivity relationship in an experimental source-sink metacommunity

Dendritic connectivity controls biodiversity patterns in experimental metacommunities

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