Transient phenomena in ecology

Hastings, Alan; Abbott, Karen C.; Cuddington, Kim; Francis, Tessa B.; Gellner, Gabriel; Lai, Ying Cheng; Морозов, А.; Petrovskii, Sergei; Scranton, Katherine; Zeeman, Mary Lou

doi:10.1126/science.aat6412

Cited by 460 publications

(486 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…By virtue of the presence cellulose fibres (anchors for sessile bacteria) and liquid-filled pores, paper substrates may provide a higher degree of environmental heterogeneity when compared to a solid agar surface. As spatial and environmental heterogeneity have been linked to the persistence of transient ecological dynamics (Hastings & Higgins 1994;Doebeli & Ruxton 1998;Hastings et al 2018), increased environmental heterogeneity (especially in concert with long-distance dispersal) may be another factor contributing to the long-term local persistence of two-strain coexistence in paper scaffolds (which in essence may be transient) while transient dynamics are rapidly quenched on solid agar leading to local extinction of one of the two strains.…”

Section: Case Study 1: Dendritic Network Connectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacteria‐in‐paper, a versatile platform to study bacterial ecology

2019

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Habitat spatial structure has a profound influence on bacterial life, yet there currently are no low‐cost equipment‐free laboratory techniques to reproduce the intricate structure of natural bacterial habitats. Here, we demonstrate the use of paper scaffolds to create landscapes spatially structured at the scales relevant to bacterial ecology. In paper scaffolds, planktonic bacteria migrate through liquid‐filled pores, while the paper’s cellulose fibres serve as anchor points for sessile colonies (biofilms). Using this novel approach, we explore bacterial colonisation dynamics in different landscape topographies and characterise the community composition of Escherichia coli strains undergoing centimetre‐scale range expansions in habitats structured at the micrometre scale. The bacteria‐in‐paper platform enables quantitative assessment of bacterial community dynamics in complex environments using everyday materials.

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Section: Case Study 1: Dendritic Network Connectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacteria‐in‐paper, a versatile platform to study bacterial ecology

2019

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“…,b, Hastings et al. ). Understanding the short‐term, transient responses of previously harvested populations is critical information for monitoring programs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the recent increase in the analysis and description of transient dynamics in ecology (Hastings et al. ), models describing transient dynamics of marine fisheries (e.g., Jennings , Frank et al. , White et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the recent increase in the analysis and description of transient dynamics in ecology (Hastings et al 2017), models describing transient dynamics of marine fisheries (e.g., Jennings 2001, Frank et al 2011, White et al 2013b) are usually simplified by assuming sexes are fixed and in equal proportions, and by ignoring the effects of harvest on sex-specific survival, reproductive patterns, and fertilization success. However, many commercially and recreationally important species are protogynous hermaphrodites, that is, they reproduce as females first and then change sex to male.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of protogynous sex change on recovery of fish populations within marine protected areas

Easter

Adreani

Hamilton

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly implemented as a conservation tool worldwide. In many cases, they are managed adaptively: the abundance of target species is monitored, and observations are compared to some model‐based expectation for the trajectory of population recovery to ensure that the MPA is achieving its goals. Most previous analyses of the transient (short‐term) response of populations to the cessation of fishing inside MPAs have dealt only with gonochore (fixed‐sex) species. However, many important fishery species are protogynous hermaphrodites (female‐to‐male sex‐changing). Because size‐selective harvest will predominantly target males in these species, harvesting not only reduces abundance but also skews the sex ratio toward females. Thus the response to MPA implementation will involve changes in both survival and sex ratio, and ultimately reproductive output. We used an age‐structured model of a generic sex‐changing fish population to compare transient population dynamics after MPA implementation to those of an otherwise similar gonochore population and examine how different features of sex‐changing life history affect those dynamics. We examined both demographically open (most larval recruitment comes from outside the MPA) and demographically closed (most larval recruitment is locally produced) dynamics. Under both scenarios, population recovery of protogynous species takes longer when fishing was more intense pre‐MPA (as in gonochores), but also depends heavily on the mating function, the degree to which the sex ratio affects reproduction. If few males are needed and reproduction is not affected by a highly female‐biased sex ratio, then population recovery is much faster; if males are a limiting resource, then increases in abundance after MPA implementation are much slower than for gonochores. Unfortunately, the mating function is largely unknown for fishes. In general, we expect that most protogynous species with haremic mating systems will be in the first category (few males needed), though there is at least one example of a fish species (though not a sex‐changing species) for which males are limiting. Thus a better understanding of the importance of male fish to population dynamics is needed for the adaptive management of MPAs.

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“…Populations and ecosystems can exhibit nonlinear threshold dynamics and unexpected abrupt regime shifts in response to gradual environmental change caused, in particular, by human activity (Scheffer et al 2001;Carpenter & Folke 2006;Suding & Hobbs 2008;Mori et al 2013;Hastings et al 2018). Studying ecological shifts is important for understanding the fundamental aspects of ecological resilience, including the underlying mechanisms, causes and consequences of the state and transition dynamics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding versus survival: proximate causes of abrupt population decline under environmental change in a desert rodent, the midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus)

Tchabovsky

Savinetskaya

Surkova

2019

Integrative Zoology

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Studying abrupt ecological shifts under gradual environmental change caused, in particular, by human activity is important for understanding the fundamental aspects and underlying mechanisms of ecological resilience. One of the rare well‐documented examples of an abrupt ecological shift is the delayed step transition of the population of a desert rodent, the midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus), from high‐abundance (1994–2002) to low‐abundance (2003–2017) regimes. This was in response to landscape transformation from desert to steppe caused by the drastic reduction of livestock in the rangelands of southern Russia after the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s. In this study, we tested whether demographic parameters were correlated with the observed abrupt downward population shift. We found that reproductive activity (the percentage of breeding females, the number of litters, fecundity and the number of young recruited per female) showed no trend over time and did not differ between periods of high and low abundance. In contrast, the adult sex ratio (SR = males: females) decreased significantly with time and was as much as twice more female‐biased for the low‐abundance population regime. However, SR was not related to any reproductive parameter, including the percentage of breeding females. We conclude that proximate reasons for an abrupt population decline in M. meridianus are not associated with the changes in breeding patterns or mate limitation caused by the Allee effect but relate to the increased mortality as a result of the desert landscape being fragmented by steppezation. The mortality is expected to be higher for males as the mobile and dispersing sex.

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Transient phenomena in ecology

Cited by 460 publications

References 65 publications

Bacteria‐in‐paper, a versatile platform to study bacterial ecology

Bacteria‐in‐paper, a versatile platform to study bacterial ecology

Influence of protogynous sex change on recovery of fish populations within marine protected areas

Breeding versus survival: proximate causes of abrupt population decline under environmental change in a desert rodent, the midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus)

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