Feedbacks between vegetation pattern and resource loss dramatically decrease ecosystem resilience and restoration potential in a simple dryland model

Mayor, Ángeles G.; Kéfi, Sonia; Bautista, Susana; Rodríguez, Francisco; Cartenì, Fabrizio; Rietkerk, Max

doi:10.1007/s10980-013-9870-4

Cited by 61 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…3), which may have caused significant damage to the tropical herbaceous and broad-leaved vegetation, except for tropical broad-leaved evergreens45, leading to further loss of soil moisture and vegetation. The decreasing cover and size of vegetation patches resulted in further losses of soil and water, which led to further vegetation loss62. The herbivorous dinosaurs ate the decreased number of plants, resulting in the disappearance of vegetal food, similar to overgrazing leading to desertification today6364, which could have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global climate change driven by soot at the K-Pg boundary as the cause of the mass extinction

Kaiho

Oshima²,

Adachi³

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

134

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The mass extinction of life 66 million years ago at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, marked by the extinctions of dinosaurs and shallow marine organisms, is important because it led to the macroevolution of mammals and appearance of humans. The current hypothesis for the extinction is that an asteroid impact in present-day Mexico formed condensed aerosols in the stratosphere, which caused the cessation of photosynthesis and global near-freezing conditions. Here, we show that the stratospheric aerosols did not induce darkness that resulted in milder cooling than previously thought. We propose a new hypothesis that latitude-dependent climate changes caused by massive stratospheric soot explain the known mortality and survival on land and in oceans at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. The stratospheric soot was ejected from the oil-rich area by the asteroid impact and was spread globally. The soot aerosols caused sufficiently colder climates at mid–high latitudes and drought with milder cooling at low latitudes on land, in addition to causing limited cessation of photosynthesis in global oceans within a few months to two years after the impact, followed by surface-water cooling in global oceans in a few years. The rapid climate change induced terrestrial extinctions followed by marine extinctions over several years.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global climate change driven by soot at the K-Pg boundary as the cause of the mass extinction

Kaiho

Oshima²,

Adachi³

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

134

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unfortunately, ecologists have carefully documented the influence of spatial distribution on ecological processes in only a few systems (e.g., de la Cruz et al 2008, Pringle et al 2010, Mayor et al 2013. Consequently, our understanding of how broadly or consistently spatial patterning affects community or ecosystem function is currently limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ecological engineer maintains consistent spatial patterning, with implications for community‐wide effects

2015

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Abstract. In many ecosystems, foundational species create spatial patterns that structure a broader community. It is unclear, however, how robust these patterns are across large areas and strong environmental gradients, and how the landscape-level consequences of these patterns may vary. We investigated the robustness of non-random patterning in the dispersion of the western harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex occidentalis), a widely recognized ecosystem engineer of western North America. We used remote imagery to characterize the spatial structure and densities of western harvester ant mounds at sites spanning their range within the sagebrush steppe and short-grass prairie areas of Wyoming (581 3 450 km area). We found that ant mound densities varied substantially across the study region, but that mounds were strongly and consistently overdispersed (regularly patterned) across both climatic gradients and mound densities. Precipitation was the only abiotic factor that significantly affected either density or pattern, with stronger patterning among mounds at drier sites. This robustness in ecological patterning is likely to have strong effects on community function; mound dispersion increased the fraction of the landscape within typical ant foraging distances up to 30% over what density alone would predict. We estimated how patterning can modify one key ant effect at a landscape level by combining mound dispersion data with information from a seed removal experiment. Randomization tests based on these results showed that in a representative area, overdispersion could increase the mean landscape-wide seed removal rate by 16%, and decrease its spatial variance by 50%. Western harvester ants are known to affect multiple aspects of community function and structure at a relatively fine scale, and our results show that their spatial dispersion may therefore influence many features of interspecific interactions and community dynamics.

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“…Additionally to the observed positive effect of plant cover, the effect of resource sinks suggests that catchment functionality can also affect shrub colonization. Overall, our results suggest that the studied sites had not previously crossed a biotic resilience threshold (Cortina et al, 2012;Mayor et al, 2013;Whisenant, 1999).…”

Section: Abiotic Factors and Shrub Patch Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 53%

Water availability and species identity control shrub colonization in abandoned semiarid steppes

Rolo

Amat

Cortina

2016

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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Highlights• Shrub cover has increased in former agricultural lands worldwide.• Colonization rates are explained by the identity of shrub species.• Species idiosyncratic effects are contingent on water availability.• Abiotic attributes, such as aspect or rock cover, played a lesser role. 1 AbstractThe increase in shrub cover and density is a widespread phenomenon in drylands worldwide. Its causes and consequences are complex and strongly idiosyncratic. Detailed knowledge of the rate of shrub colonization, and its abiotic and biotic drivers is crucial to fully understand and manage these areas. We used a set of aerial photographs (1956, 1978, 1985, 1998 and 2009) describing early, gradual and late recruitment, respectively. Differences in shrub patch colonization rate were related to the identity of patch-forming species, but contingent on water availability. Total increases in shrub patch density were larger when patches were dominated by late colonizer species. Overall shrub patch dynamics was mostly related to the identity of patchforming species and climatic conditions, and to a lesser extent physical factors such as aspect and rock cover. Given the sensitivity of patch-forming species to climatic conditions, new challenges for steppe management will emerge over the next decades. Species able to thrive under harsh conditions may increase their dominance at the expense of species adapted to less demanding conditions.

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Feedbacks between vegetation pattern and resource loss dramatically decrease ecosystem resilience and restoration potential in a simple dryland model

Cited by 61 publications

References 56 publications

Global climate change driven by soot at the K-Pg boundary as the cause of the mass extinction

Global climate change driven by soot at the K-Pg boundary as the cause of the mass extinction

An ecological engineer maintains consistent spatial patterning, with implications for community‐wide effects

Water availability and species identity control shrub colonization in abandoned semiarid steppes

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