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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Negative relationships between species richness and temporal variability are common but weak in natural systems
Ecology, Volume 99, No. 11, Year 2018
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Description
Effects of species diversity on population and community stability (or more precisely, the effects of species richness on temporal variability) have been studied for several decades, but there have been no large-scale tests in natural communities of predictions from theory. We used 91 data sets including plants, fish, small mammals, zooplankton, birds, and insects, to examine the relationship between species richness and temporal variability in populations and communities. Seventy-eight of 91 data sets showed a negative relationship between species richness and population variability; 46 of these relationships were statistically significant. Only five of the 13 positive richness-population variability relationships were statistically significant. Similarly, 51 of 91 data sets showed a negative relationship between species richness and community variability; of these, 26 were statistically significant. Seven of the 40 positive richness–community-variability relationships were statistically significant. We were able to test transferability (i.e., the predictive ability of models for sites that are spatially distinct from sites that were used to build the models) for 69 of 91 data sets; 35 and 31 data sets were transferable at the population and community levels, respectively. Only four were positive at the population level, and two at the community level. We conclude that there is compelling evidence of a negative relationship between species richness and temporal variability for about one-half of the ecological communities we examined. However, species richness explained relatively little of the variability in population or community abundances and resulted in small improvements in predictive ability. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America
Authors & Co-Authors
Houlahan, Jeff E.
Canada, Fredericton
University of new Brunswick
Currie, David J.
Unknown Affiliation
Cottenie, Karl
Canada, Guelph
University of Guelph
Cumming, Graeme S.
Canada, Guelph
University of Guelph
Findlay, C. Scott
Australia, Townsville
Arc Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.
United States, Stillwater
Oklahoma State University
Legendre, Pierre
Canada, Montreal
University of Montreal
Muldavin, Esteban H.
United States, Albuquerque
The University of new Mexico
Noble, David G.
United Kingdom, Thetford
British Trust for Ornithology
Russell, Roly B.
Unknown Affiliation
Stevens, Richard D.
United States, Lubbock
Texas Tech University
Willis, Trevor J.
United States, Portland
University of Southern Maine
Wondzell, Steven M.
United States, Corvallis
Usda Ars Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory
Statistics
Citations: 24
Authors: 13
Affiliations: 10
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1002/ecy.2514
ISSN:
00129658
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study