Synchrony and Stability of Food Webs in Metacommunities

Gouhier, Tarik C.; Guichard, Frédéric; Gonzalez, Andrew

doi:10.1086/649579

Cited by 114 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

142

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…B 281: 20140633 characteristics of nearby lakes, and differences in the seasonal forcing regime of spatially distant lakes, may ensure that compensatory dynamics lack coherence across study sites and/or regions. In addition, metacommunity models have shown that locally driven compensatory dynamics can be quickly overcome by environmental-and dispersal-driven synchronization [40] suggesting that compensatory dynamics may be unstable in the presence of other regional factors. In addition to these broader patterns, our method also revealed scale-specific temporal changes in synchrony and compensation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronous dynamics of zooplankton competitors prevail in temperate lake ecosystems

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although competing species are expected to exhibit compensatory dynamics (negative temporal covariation), empirical work has demonstrated that competitive communities often exhibit synchronous dynamics ( positive temporal covariation). This has led to the suggestion that environmental forcing dominates species dynamics; however, synchronous and compensatory dynamics may appear at different length scales and/or at different times, making it challenging to identify their relative importance. We compiled 58 long-term datasets of zooplankton abundance in north-temperate and subtropical lakes and used wavelet analysis to quantify general patterns in the times and scales at which synchronous/compensatory dynamics dominated zooplankton communities in different regions and across the entire dataset. Synchronous dynamics were far more prevalent at all scales and times and were ubiquitous at the annual scale. Although we found compensatory dynamics in approximately 14% of all combinations of time period/scale/ lake, there were no consistent scales or time periods during which compensatory dynamics were apparent across different regions. Our results suggest that the processes driving compensatory dynamics may be local in their extent, while those generating synchronous dynamics operate at much larger scales. This highlights an important gap in our understanding of the interaction between environmental and biotic forces that structure communities.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronous dynamics of zooplankton competitors prevail in temperate lake ecosystems

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In our study, migration was unidirectional, corresponding to external or forced synchronization simulating , for example, unidirectional dispersal due to predominating winds or water flow. Almost all the theory on synchronized community and population dynamics in chaotic systems is developed for bidirectional dispersal or as reaction-diffusion model allowing for mutual synchronization 7,44,45 . One condition for phase locking of forced chaotic systems (that is, unidirectional dispersal) is that the mismatch between the instantaneous phase of the driver and response population is relatively small 46 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different types of synchrony in chaotic and cyclic communities

Becks

Arndt

2013

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stability and persistence of populations is of great interest for management and conservation purposes. Spatial dynamics can have a crucial role in population stability via synchronization, and beneficial and detrimental effects on population persistence have been shown. Despite a theoretical understanding of synchronization, empirical data on synchrony of populations are restricted to systems that do not display the full spectrum of complex dynamics that may occur in nature (that is, chaos or quasiperiodicity). Here we show in experiments that the qualitative form of dynamic behaviour of chaotic and periodic oscillating communities did not change when unidirectionally coupled to oscillating driver communities. Driver and response populations were phase locked in cyclic communities, whereas chaotic communities showed only short periods of statistical coherencies. Our study provides the first empirical analysis of synchronization of chaotic communities and shows that the likelihood for chaos is not lowered in spatially explicit systems but that cyclic and chaotic systems differ in synchronization.

show abstract

“…The degree of asynchrony can explain variation in the connectivity-stability relationship among types of food web networks (Amarasekare 2008) and environmental perturbations (Gouhier et al 2010). In a simple two-patch predator-prey system, Jansen (1995) found that asynchrony in populations allowed a two-patch system to persist longer than a single-patch system.…”

Section: Asynchrony-type Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food web complexity and stability across habitat connectivity gradients

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The effects of habitat connectivity on food webs have been studied both empirically and theoretically, yet the question of whether empirical results support theoretical predictions for any food web metric other than species richness has received little attention. Our synthesis brings together theory and empirical evidence for how habitat connectivity affects both food web stability and complexity. Food web stability is often predicted to be greatest at intermediate levels of connectivity, representing a compromise between the stabilizing effects of dispersal via rescue effects and prey switching, and the destabilizing effects of dispersal via regional synchronization of population dynamics. Empirical studies of food web stability generally support both this pattern and underlying mechanisms. Food chain length has been predicted to have both increasing and unimodal relationships with connectivity as a result of predators being constrained by the patch occupancy of their prey. Although both patterns have been documented empirically, the underlying mechanisms may differ from those predicted by models. In terms of other measures of food web complexity, habitat connectivity has been empirically found to generally increase link density but either reduce or have no effect on connectance, whereas a unimodal relationship is expected. In general, there is growing concordance between empirical patterns and theoretical predictions for some effects of habitat connectivity on food webs, but many predictions remain to be tested over a full connectivity gradient, and empirical metrics of complexity are rarely modeled. Closing these gaps will allow a deeper understanding of how natural and anthropogenic changes in connectivity can affect real food webs.

show abstract

Synchrony and Stability of Food Webs in Metacommunities

Cited by 114 publications

References 49 publications

Synchronous dynamics of zooplankton competitors prevail in temperate lake ecosystems

Synchronous dynamics of zooplankton competitors prevail in temperate lake ecosystems

Different types of synchrony in chaotic and cyclic communities

Food web complexity and stability across habitat connectivity gradients

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About