Shifting Macroecological Patterns and Static Theory Failure in a Stressed Alpine Plant Community
Autor: | Benjamin Blonder, Juliette Franzman, Micah Brush, Kaito Umemura, John Harte, Courtenay A. Ray |
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Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
maximum entropy Ecology Alpine plant 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Ecology (disciplines) alpine vegetation Community structure Plant community drought Ecological systems theory 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Static theory Geography Disturbance (ecology) disturbance ecology demographic decline ecological theory Ecosystem Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Relative abundance distribution QH540-549.5 |
Zdroj: | Ecosphere, Vol 12, Iss 6, Pp n/a-n/a (2021) |
Popis: | Accumulating evidence suggests that ecological communities undergoing change in response to either anthropogenic or natural disturbances exhibit macroecological patterns that differ from those observed in similar types of communities in relatively undisturbed sites. In contrast to such cross‐site comparisons, however, there are few empirical studies of shifts over time in the shapes of macroecological patterns. Here, we provide a dramatic example of a plant community in which the species–area relationship and the species‐abundance distribution change markedly over a period of six years. These patterns increasingly deviate from the predictions of the maximum entropy theory of ecology (METE), which successfully predicts macroecological patterns in relatively static systems. The error in the species–area relationship prediction additionally correlates over time with increased stress measured as mortality minus recruitment, providing a link between demography and the failure of macroecological theory. Information on the dynamic state of an ecosystem inferred from snapshot measurements of macroecological community structure can potentially assist in identifying causes and consequences of disturbance and extending the domain of current theories and models to disturbed ecosystems. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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