Diversity–stability relationship varies with latitude in zooplankton

Abstract

Analyses of temporal patterns of diversity across a wide range of taxa have found that more diverse communities often show smaller compositional changes over time. This generality indicates that high diversity is associated with greater temporal stability in species composition. We examined patterns of diversity and community stability in zooplankton time series data from 36 lakes sampled over a combined 483 years. The species-time relationship was flatter in more species-rich lakes in the temperate zone. However, high-latitude lakes had both low richness and low turnover. These patterns were consistent for turnover both within and among years. Daily, annual and long-term richness were all higher in large lakes while turnover was unaffected by the surface area. Richness on all time scales, as well as turnover within and among years, all declined at high latitude. Species-area relations and latitudinal gradients in richness therefore reflect different temporal components of diversity. Our results suggest that diversity shows strong associations with compositional stability that vary qualitatively across biogeographical provinces. Community stability increases with diversity among lakes in the temperate zone; however, the two are negatively correlated across latitudinal gradients. These patterns indicate that either the direct effects of diversity on stability or their covariance with environmental fluctuations vary with latitude.

Reforming Watershed Restoration: Science in Need of Application and Applications in Need of Science

“…Current thinking is that community stability may be strongly associated with diversity because as long as species are only weakly interacting, diversity buffers communities from the impacts of a disturbance as species responses to the disturbance will vary. But the nature of the relationship between diversity and stability is complex and varies with system and environmental conditions (Shurin et al 2007). In some settings or under some conditions, low diversity is associated with high levels of stability, not vice versa.…”

Plankton Community Stability and Its Relationship with Phytoplankton Species Richness in Lake Nansihu, China

“…Conversely, Filstrup et al [6] found a positive relationship between phytoplankton diversity and community turnover. Shurin et al [30] suggested that compositional stability in zooplankton communities showed strong relationships with diversity, varying from positive within a biogeographical region to negative across a latitudinal gradient. According to the above analyses, the relationship between plankton diversity and community stability is complex, and a consistent conclusion has not been derived.…”

Effect of daily variation on the seasonality of testate amoebae community structure in different environments of a Neotropical floodplain

“…We suggest that this variability in environmental conditions is the main influence on testate amoebae community structure. Floodplains are regularly affected by changes in environmental conditions that can exceed the tolerance limit of some species (Shurin et al, 2007(Shurin et al, , 2010. Thus, these conditions can inhibit the development of some species, thereby changing the dominance patterns.…”