Stability and species richness in complex communities

Ives, Anthony R.; Klug, Jennifer L.; Gross, Kevin

doi:10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00144.x

Cited by 235 publications

(236 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Consequently, stability is often measured as the system's ability to defy change, i.e., resilience or resistance (3). In contrast, laboratory and field experiments rarely possess a well-defined equilibrium, so it is difficult to measure resilience or resistance (16). Given the highly variable nature of population dynamics, empirical studies often rely on measures of variability as indicators of system stability (17-21).…”

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confidence: 99%

Perturbations to trophic interactions and the stability of complex food webs

O’Gorman

Emmerson

2009

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

152

154

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The pattern of predator-prey interactions is thought to be a key determinant of ecosystem processes and stability. Complex ecological networks are characterized by distributions of interaction strengths that are highly skewed, with many weak and few strong interactors present. Theory suggests that this pattern promotes stability as weak interactors dampen the destabilizing potential of strong interactors. Here, we present an experimental test of this hypothesis and provide empirical evidence that the loss of weak interactors can destabilize communities in nature. We ranked 10 marine consumer species by the strength of their trophic interactions. We removed the strongest and weakest of these interactors from experimental food webs containing >100 species. Extinction of strong interactors produced a dramatic trophic cascade and reduced the temporal stability of key ecosystem process rates, community diversity and resistance to changes in community composition. Loss of weak interactors also proved damaging for our experimental ecosystems, leading to reductions in the temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem process rates, community diversity, and resistance. These results highlight the importance of conserving species to maintain the stabilizing pattern of trophic interactions in nature, even if they are perceived to have weak effects in the system. biodiversity and ecosystem functioning ͉ dynamic index ͉ interaction strength ͉ predator-prey interactions ͉ temporal and spatial variability F or decades, scientists have argued over the natural phenomena that allow complex communities to persist in nature (1-3). Randomly assembled communities become less stable with increasing complexity (2, 4), but natural communities are finely structured (5, 6), displaying properties that promote stability despite complexity (7). Experiments (8-10) and theory based on empirical data (11, 12) have shown that real food webs are characterized by few strong interactions embedded in a majority of weak links. It is thought that this nonrandom arrangement of interaction strengths promotes community-level stability by generating negative covariances, which suppress the destabilizing effect of strong consumer-resource interactions (3). Theoretical studies provide overwhelming support for the idea that the pattern of strong and weak predator-prey interaction strengths confers stability to food webs (11-14); however, these predictions have never been tested experimentally in natural systems.One difficulty in testing the importance of interaction strength patterns for the stability of real food webs is the disparity between empirical and theoretical estimates of stability. Theoretical studies often assume that a system is stable only if it is governed by stable equilibrium dynamics (2,7,12,15). Consequently, stability is often measured as the system's ability to defy change, i.e., resilience or resistance (3). In contrast, laboratory and field experiments rarely possess a well-defined equilibrium, so it is difficult to measure resilience or...

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confidence: 99%

Perturbations to trophic interactions and the stability of complex food webs

O’Gorman

Emmerson

2009

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

152

154

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“…Most genetic studies have focused on equilibrium behavior (10,11) or transient behavior of the genetic variance (12). In ecology, researchers have summarized the role of species richness for ecosystem functioning for the equilibrium case (13,14) and treated the general statistical properties for group performance with heterogeneous species in a varying environment (14)(15)(16). Our approach uses quantifiable interspecific tradeoffs to predict the dynamics of functional group properties in nonequilibrium situations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Phenotypic diversity and ecosystem functioning in changing environments: A theoretical framework

Norberg

Swaney

Dushoff

et al. 2001

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

407

462

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Biodiversity plays a vital role for ecosystem functioning in a changing environment. Yet theoretical approaches that incorporate diversity into classical ecosystem theory do not provide a general dynamic theory based on mechanistic principles. In this paper, we suggest that approaches developed for quantitative genetics can be extended to ecosystem functioning by modeling the means and variances of phenotypes within a group of species. We present a framework that suggests that phenotypic variance within functional groups is linearly related to their ability to respond to environmental changes. As a result, the long-term productivity for a group of species with high phenotypic variance may be higher than for the best single species, even though high phenotypic variance decreases productivity in the short term, because suboptimal species are present. In addition, we find that in the case of accelerating environmental change, species succession in a changing environment may become discontinuous. Our work suggests that this phenomenon is related to diversity as well as to the environmental disturbance regime, both of which are affected by anthropogenic activities. By introducing new techniques for modeling the aggregate behavior of groups of species, the present approach may provide a new avenue for ecosystem analysis.

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“…However, 5 randomly assembled communities have proven a popular starting point when asking questions of community stability (Chen and Cohen, 2001;Cohen and Newman, 1985;Ives and Hughes, 2002;Ives and Carpenter, 2007;Ives et al, 1999;Ives et al, 2000;Jansen and Kokkoris, 2003;Rozdilsky and Stone, 2001) and can serve as a useful null hypothesis for comparison with communities assembled under different ecological and evolutionary rules. 10…”

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confidence: 99%

Increasing community size and connectance can increase stability in competitive communities

Fowler

2009

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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To cite this version:Mike S. Fowler. Increasing community size and connectance can increase stability in competitive communities.Journal of Theoretical Biology, Elsevier, 2009, 258 (2) This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.A c c e p t e d m a n u s c r i p t (0)9 191 57730 Fax: +358 (0)9 191 57694 e-mail: mike.fowler@helsinki.fi ABSTRACT: The relationship between community complexity and stability has been the subject of an enduring debate in ecology over the last 50 years. Results from early model 10 communities showed that increased complexity is associated with decreased local stability. I demonstrate that increasing both the number of species in a community, and the connectance between these species results in an increased probability of local stability in discrete-time competitive communities, when some species would show unstable dynamics in the absence of competition. This is shown analytically for a simple case and across a wider range of 15 community sizes using simulations, where individual species have dynamics that can range from stable point equilibria to periodic or more complex. Increasing the number of competitive links in the community reduces per-capita growth rates through an increase in competitive feedback, stabilising oscillating dynamics. This result was robust to the introduction of a trade-off between competitive ability and intrinsic growth rate and changes 20

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Stability and species richness in complex communities

Cited by 235 publications

References 52 publications

Perturbations to trophic interactions and the stability of complex food webs

Perturbations to trophic interactions and the stability of complex food webs

Phenotypic diversity and ecosystem functioning in changing environments: A theoretical framework

Increasing community size and connectance can increase stability in competitive communities

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