High compositional dissimilarity among small communities is decoupled from environmental variation: a multicontinental analysis of riverine fish

Jacobi, Cristina Mariana; Siqueira, Tadeu

doi:10.32942/osf.io/vngse

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Our research indicates that such population-level events can have consequences for the temporal dynamics of local communities and potentially to metacommunities. So far, most previous research on this topic highlighted the effects of demographic stochasticity on either population temporal dynamics or community spatial dynamics (Lande 1993;Legendre et al 1999;Vindenes and Engen 2017;Siqueira et al 2020;Feng et al 2022;Jacobi and Siqueira 2023). We extend previous findings here by showing with empirical data that demographic stochasticity can also generate greater temporal variability in species composition, but mainly at the local scale.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Expanding on this understanding, recent research suggests that the effects of local demographic stochastic events might extend to larger spatial scales and levels of biological organization. For example, there is mounting evidence indicating that demographic stochasticity increases spatial beta diversity among local communities comprised of small populations (small communities; (Orrock and Watling 2010;Gilbert and Levine 2017;Siqueira et al 2020) and weakens communityenvironment relationships (Jacobi and Siqueira 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unveiling the temporal signatures of demographic stochasticity from populations to metacommunities

Jacobi,

Siqueira

2024

Preprint

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The temporal stability of ecological properties tends to increase with spatial scale and levels of biological organization, which is mostly associated with deterministic processes. However, random fluctuations caused by demographic stochasticity in small populations might extend to communities and metacommunities, potentially affecting stability propagation across biological levels and spatial scales. Here, we tested this hypothesis by combining process-based simulations and statistical modeling of 468 sites distributed across 39 regions, sampled from 1981 to 2019, to investigate how fish communities and metacommunities changed over time at local and regional scales. We found that more communities with more species and in more seasonal environments were more variable. However, the major driver of compositional temporal variability was community size. Communities comprising smaller populations were more temporally variable than those comprising larger populations. This relationship was weaker at the regional scale, suggesting a dampening effect at the metacommunity level. Our results suggest that the potential effects of demographic stochasticity, which are undoubtedly stronger in small populations, might extend beyond populations, leaving different signals in the temporal variability of ecological properties. These effects appear to be stronger and consistent within small communities and weaker in metacommunities. Our study advances the knowledge of how populational-demographic stochasticity might affect biodiversity temporal dynamics across scales.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling the temporal signatures of demographic stochasticity from populations to metacommunities

Jacobi,

Siqueira

2024

Preprint

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“…This means that communities within invaded metacommunities become more similar to each other as invasion advances in time. Unless demographic stochasticity plays a major role in community assembly (Siqueira et al 2020;Jacobi and Siqueira 2023), competition is likely enhanced in a regenerating forest that is dwindling in size (Amarasekare 2003;Cadotte 2007;Bowker and Maestre 2012). If this process is replicated across various regenerating forest patches, the same set of species may thrive in different communities, which leads to a homogenizing effect (Smart et al 2006;Solar et al 2015;McKinney and Lockwood 1999;Arroyo-Rodríguez et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of white-popinac on regenerating seasonal semideciduous forests propagate across spatial scales

Zardetto,

Siqueira

2024

Biol Invasions

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Biological invasions are complex scale-dependent processes. Metacommunity ecology provides the means to understand the effects of invasive non-native species (INNS) because it explicitly considers how local and regional processes interact to drive the three main components of biodiversity: alpha, beta, and gamma. White-popinac (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit) is a widely distributed INNS in regenerating forests in the Atlantic Forest (Brazil). White-popinac invasions results in a particular spatial structure as the species forms dense and homogeneous patches, instead of spreading individuals throughout invaded areas. Here we took advantage of this unique spatial configuration formed by patches of native forest, regenerating areas, and patches of white-popinac to investigate how local and regional dynamics of plant (meta-)communities under natural regeneration are affected by whitepopinac. We conducted replicated multi-strata surveys in 131 communities distributed among 29 metacommunities of regenerating forests that had different ages of white-popinac invasion. We found (i) mirrored responses among local and regional scales: at both scales, native species richness decreased with the increase of invasion age, whereas INNS richness increased; and (ii) β-diversity of native species decreased with the increase of invasion age, showing that time-advance of invasion led to a homogenizing effect. We also found evidence that the advance of white-popinac patches towards regenerating forests increases with time and proximity to the forest fragment, which likely had indirect effects on regenerating communities by reducing the size of the regenerating area. Our results indicate that the effects of white-popinac invasions on regenerating forests can be so vigorous that they propagate from the local to the regional scale, via a decrease in β-diversity. We reinforce the importance of considering multiscale approaches on assessing effects of white-popinac invasions.

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“…Data are available from the Zenodo Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7703264 (Jacobi and Siqueira 2023).…”

Section: Author Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High compositional dissimilarity among small communities is decoupled from environmental variation

Jacobi

Siqueira

2023

Oikos

Self Cite

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Communities composed of small populations are predicted to be strongly influenced by stochastic demographic events and, thus, less affected by environmental selection than those composed of large populations. However, this prediction has only been tested with computer simulations, simplified controlled experiments, and limited observational data. Here, using multiple datasets on fish abundance in 541 streams we tested 1) if communities composed of small populations are more spatially variable and 2) less related to the environment variation than communities composed of large populations. We used process‐based simulations to identify β‐diversity metrics and community–environment measures that were appropriate to investigate the role of assembly processes along a gradient of community size. We show that variation in species composition among small communities is higher than among large communities and that the strength of community–environment relationships is weaker in small communities. Our results indicate that community size affects the strength of ecological drift and environmental selection in metacommunities. We thus suggest that further declines in the size of populations and ecosystems can make spatial variation in biodiversity more unpredictable.

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High compositional dissimilarity among small communities is decoupled from environmental variation: a multicontinental analysis of riverine fish

Cited by 5 publications

References 27 publications

Unveiling the temporal signatures of demographic stochasticity from populations to metacommunities

Unveiling the temporal signatures of demographic stochasticity from populations to metacommunities

The effects of white-popinac on regenerating seasonal semideciduous forests propagate across spatial scales

High compositional dissimilarity among small communities is decoupled from environmental variation

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