Species reordering, not changes in richness, drives long‐term dynamics in grassland communities

Jones, Sydney K.; Ripplinger, Julie; Collins, Scott L.

doi:10.1111/ele.12864

Cited by 66 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…, Jones et al. ). Here, we introduce several new functions to analyze patterns of community change in an update to the library(“codyn”) R package.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Jones et al. ). The new functions we present will help quantify community reordering, which will deepen our understanding of how the phenomenon of species reordering contributes to community change over time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Jones et al. ) because it does not take into account identity or abundance potentially masking complex dynamics, such as turnover and reordering of dominant species within communities (Collins et al. , Avolio et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comprehensive approach to analyzing community dynamics using rank abundance curves

et al. 2019

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Univariate and multivariate methods are commonly used to explore the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecological communities, but each has limitations, including oversimplification or abstraction of communities. Rank abundance curves (RACs) potentially integrate these existing methodologies by detailing species‐level community changes. Here, we had three goals: first, to simplify analysis of community dynamics by developing a coordinated set of R functions, and second, to demystify the relationships among univariate, multivariate, and RACs measures, and examine how each is influenced by the community parameters as well as data collection methods. We developed new functions for studying temporal changes and spatial differences in RACs in an update to the R package library(“codyn”), alongside other new functions to calculate univariate and multivariate measures of community dynamics. We also developed a new approach to studying changes in the shape of RAC curves. The R package update presented here increases the accessibility of univariate and multivariate measures of community change over time and difference over space. Next, we use simulated and real data to assess the RAC and multivariate measures that are output from our new functions, studying (1) if they are influenced by species richness and evenness, temporal turnover, and spatial variability and (2) how the measures are related to each other. Lastly, we explore the use of the measures with an example from a long‐term nutrient addition experiment. We find that the RAC and multivariate measures are not sensitive to species richness and evenness and that all the measures detail unique aspects of temporal change or spatial differences. We also find that species reordering is the strongest correlate of a multivariate measure of compositional change and explains most community change observed in long‐term nutrient addition experiment. Overall, we show that species reordering is potentially an understudied determinant of community changes over time or differences between treatments. The functions developed here should enhance the use of RACs to further explore the dynamics of ecological communities.

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“…, Jones et al. ). Here, we introduce several new functions to analyze patterns of community change in an update to the library(“codyn”) R package.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comprehensive approach to analyzing community dynamics using rank abundance curves

et al. 2019

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“…This result suggests that even if community diversity is not changed, species reordering in a community still could cause great influence on ecosystem functioning (Jones et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plants alter their vertical root distribution rather than biomass allocation in response to changing precipitation

Zhang

Cadotte

Chen

et al. 2019

Ecology

104

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Elucidating the variation of allocation pattern of ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP) and its underlying mechanisms is critically important for understanding the changes of aboveground and belowground ecosystem functions. Under optimal partitioning theory, plants should allocate more NPP to the organ that acquires the most limiting resource, and this expectation has been widely used to explain and predict NPP allocation under changing precipitation. However, confirmatory evidence for this theory has mostly come from observed spatial variation in the relationship between precipitation and NPP allocation across ecosystems, rather than directly from the influences of changing precipitation on NPP allocation within systems. We performed a 6‐yr five‐level precipitation manipulation experiment in a semiarid steppe to test whether changes in NPP allocation can be explained by the optimal partitioning theory, and how water requirement of plant community is maintained if NPP allocation is unaltered. The 30 precipitation levels (5 levels × 6 yr) were divided into dry, nominal, and wet precipitation ranges, relative to historical precipitation variation over the past six decades. We found that NPP in both aboveground (ANPP) and belowground (BNPP) increased nonlinearly as precipitation increased, while the allocation of NPP to BNPP (fBNPP) showed a concave quadratic relationship with precipitation. The declined fBNPP as precipitation increased in the dry range supported the optimal partitioning theory. However, in the nominal range, NPP allocation was not influenced by the changed precipitation; instead, BNPP was distributed more in the surface soil horizon (0–10 cm) as precipitation increased, and conversely more in the deeper soil layers (10–30 cm) as precipitation decreased. This response in root foraging appears to be a strategy to satisfy plant water requirements and partially explains the stable NPP allocation patterns. Overall, our results suggest that plants can adjust their vertical BNPP distribution in response to drought stress, and that only under extreme drought does the optimal partitioning theory strictly apply, highlighting the context dependency of the adaption and growth of plants under changing precipitation.

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“…All five species that responded most strongly to annual/ near-annual temporal grains of drought are grassland birds, a guild known for its sensitivity to weather extremes (Gorzo et al, 2016;Zuckerberg, Ribic, & McCauley, 2018) and which in recent decades has experienced steep population declines (Beresford et al, 2018;Sauer & Link, 2011;Sauer, Link, Fallon, Pardieck, & Ziolkowski, 2013) and community reordering (Jones, Ripplinger, & Collins, 2017). All five species that responded most strongly to annual/ near-annual temporal grains of drought are grassland birds, a guild known for its sensitivity to weather extremes (Gorzo et al, 2016;Zuckerberg, Ribic, & McCauley, 2018) and which in recent decades has experienced steep population declines (Beresford et al, 2018;Sauer & Link, 2011;Sauer, Link, Fallon, Pardieck, & Ziolkowski, 2013) and community reordering (Jones, Ripplinger, & Collins, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species‐specific and temporal scale‐dependent responses of birds to drought

Cady

O’Connell

Loss

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Global climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of weather extremes, including severe droughts in many regions. Drought can impact organisms by inhibiting reproduction, reducing survival and abundance, and forcing range shifts. For birds, considering temporal scale by averaging drought‐related variables over different time lengths (i.e., temporal grains) captures different hydrologic attributes which may uniquely influence food supplies, vegetation greenness/structure, and other factors affecting populations. However, studies examining drought impacts on birds often assess a single temporal grain without considering that different species have different life histories that likely determine the temporal grain of their drought response. Furthermore, while drought is known to influence bird abundance and drive between‐year range shifts, less understood is whether it causes within‐range changes in species distributions. Our objectives were to (a) determine which temporal grain of drought (if any) is most related to bird presence/absence and whether this response is species specific; and (b) assess whether drought alters bird distributions by quantifying probability of local colonization and extinction as a function of drought intensity. We used North American Breeding Bird Survey data collected over 16 years, generalized linear mixed models, and dynamic occupancy models to meet these objectives. Different bird species responded to drought at different temporal grains, with most showing the strongest signal at annual or near‐annual grains. For all drought‐responsive species, increased drought intensity at any temporal grain always correlated with decreased occupancy. Additionally, colonization/extinction analyses indicated that one species, the dickcissel (Spiza americana), is more likely to colonize novel areas within the southern/core portion of its range during drought. Considering drought at different temporal grains, along with hydrologic attributes captured by each grain, may better reveal mechanisms behind drought impacts on birds and other organisms, and therefore improve understanding of how global climate change impacts species and the landscapes they inhabit.

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Species reordering, not changes in richness, drives long‐term dynamics in grassland communities

Cited by 66 publications

References 67 publications

A comprehensive approach to analyzing community dynamics using rank abundance curves

A comprehensive approach to analyzing community dynamics using rank abundance curves

Plants alter their vertical root distribution rather than biomass allocation in response to changing precipitation

Species‐specific and temporal scale‐dependent responses of birds to drought

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