| 1. |
- Clark, Adam Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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General statistical scaling laws for stability in ecological systems
- 2021
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Ingår i: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 24:7, s. 1474-1486
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecological stability refers to a family of concepts used to describe how systems of interacting species vary through time and respond to disturbances. Because observed ecological stability depends on sampling scales and environmental context, it is notoriously difficult to compare measurements across sites and systems. Here, we apply stochastic dynamical systems theory to derive general statistical scaling relationships across time, space, and ecological level of organisation for three fundamental stability aspects: resilience, resistance, and invariance. These relationships can be calibrated using random or representative samples measured at individual scales, and projected to predict average stability at other scales across a wide range of contexts. Moreover deviations between observed vs. extrapolated scaling relationships can reveal information about unobserved heterogeneity across time, space, or species. We anticipate that these methods will be useful for cross-study synthesis of stability data, extrapolating measurements to unobserved scales, and identifying underlying causes and consequences of heterogeneity.
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| 2. |
- Zhang, Helin, et al.
(författare)
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Dispersal network heterogeneity promotes species coexistence in hierarchical competitive communities
- 2021
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Ingår i: Ecology Letters. - : WILEY. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 24:1, s. 50-59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance is a fundamental issue in ecology. The possibility that species disperse within the landscape along differing paths presents a relatively unexplored mechanism by which diversity could emerge. By embedding a classical metapopulation model within a network framework, we explore how access to different dispersal networks can promote species coexistence. While it is clear that species with the same demography cannot coexist stably on shared dispersal networks, we find that coexistence is possible on unshared networks, as species can surprisingly form self-organised clusters of occupied patches with the most connected patches at the core. Furthermore, a unimodal biodiversity response to an increase in species colonisation rates or average patch connectivity emerges in unshared networks. Increasing network size also increases species richness monotonically, producing characteristic species-area curves. This suggests that, in contrast to previous predictions, many more species can co-occur than the number of limiting resources.
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