Multi-scale biodiversity drives temporal variability in macrosystems

Authors

Christopher J. Patrick, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow
Kevin E. McCluney
Albert Ruhi
Andrew Gregory
John Sabo
James H. Thorp

Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

2021

Journal

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Volume

19

Issue

1

First Page

47

Last Page

56

Abstract

High temporal variability in environmental conditions, populations, and ecological communities can result in species extinctions and outbreaks of agricultural pests and disease vectors, as well as impact industries dependent on reliable provisioning of ecosys- tem services. Yet few empirical studies have focused on testing hypotheses about the drivers of ecological temporal variability at large spatial and temporal scales. Using decadal datasets that span aquatic and terrestrial macrosystems and structural equation modeling, we show that local temporal variability and spatial synchrony increase temporal variability for entire macrosystems. These mechanisms are influenced by environmental heterogeneity, habitat-level species diversity, spatial scale, and the size of the regional species pool. This analysis is among the first to provide a quantitative argument for the value of regional species diversity. Moreover, our conceptual model is generalizable and may help guide management efforts to reduce temporal variability for con- servation or service provisioning in other macrosystems.

DOI

doi:10.1002/fee.2297

Keywords

Biodiversity, ecosystems

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Patrick, Christopher J.; McCluney, Kevin E.; Ruhi, Albert; Gregory, Andrew; Sabo, John; and Thorp, James H., Multi-scale biodiversity drives temporal variability in macrosystems (2021). Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 19(1), 47-56.

doi:10.1002/fee.2297