Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity
ABSTRACT Changes in biodiversity reflect processes acting at multiple spatial scales, from local to global, among habitats and within communities. This complexity makes it difficult to measure mechanisms that have traditionally interested ecologists, such as environmental filters. To resolve this, w...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71694 |
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| author | William Godsoe Warwick J. Allen Lauren P. Waller Barbara I. P. Barratt Sarah P. Flanagan Zachary H. Marion Jason M. Tylianakis Elena Moltchanova Ian A. Dickie |
| author_facet | William Godsoe Warwick J. Allen Lauren P. Waller Barbara I. P. Barratt Sarah P. Flanagan Zachary H. Marion Jason M. Tylianakis Elena Moltchanova Ian A. Dickie |
| author_sort | William Godsoe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Changes in biodiversity reflect processes acting at multiple spatial scales, from local to global, among habitats and within communities. This complexity makes it difficult to measure mechanisms that have traditionally interested ecologists, such as environmental filters. To resolve this, we propose an approach to partition temporal changes in biodiversity into contributions from selection at multiple scales. We applied this approach to study changes in the biodiversity of invertebrate herbivores from a large‐scale, plant community experiment. Though the experiment was designed to foster distinct insect communities due to differences in host plants, our approach showed that selection among these treatments was a negligible facet of diversity change. These effects were swamped by rapid changes in relative abundances of aphids due to both immigration and selection across the metacommunity. More broadly, our work highlights how total change in biodiversity across a biogeographic region can be partitioned into logically distinct mechanisms. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3bd4b1d397ca4eaab2cf755f8a63d80f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj-art-3bd4b1d397ca4eaab2cf755f8a63d80f2025-08-20T03:58:44ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582025-07-01157n/an/a10.1002/ece3.71694Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a MetacommunityWilliam Godsoe0Warwick J. Allen1Lauren P. Waller2Barbara I. P. Barratt3Sarah P. Flanagan4Zachary H. Marion5Jason M. Tylianakis6Elena Moltchanova7Ian A. Dickie8Lincoln University Lincoln New ZealandSchool of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New ZealandBioprotection Aotearoa Lincoln University Lincoln New ZealandAgResearch Invermay Research Centre Mosgiel New ZealandSchool of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New ZealandSchool of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New ZealandBioprotection Aotearoa, School of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New ZealandSchool of Mathematics and Statistics University of Canterbury Christchurch New ZealandSchool of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New ZealandABSTRACT Changes in biodiversity reflect processes acting at multiple spatial scales, from local to global, among habitats and within communities. This complexity makes it difficult to measure mechanisms that have traditionally interested ecologists, such as environmental filters. To resolve this, we propose an approach to partition temporal changes in biodiversity into contributions from selection at multiple scales. We applied this approach to study changes in the biodiversity of invertebrate herbivores from a large‐scale, plant community experiment. Though the experiment was designed to foster distinct insect communities due to differences in host plants, our approach showed that selection among these treatments was a negligible facet of diversity change. These effects were swamped by rapid changes in relative abundances of aphids due to both immigration and selection across the metacommunity. More broadly, our work highlights how total change in biodiversity across a biogeographic region can be partitioned into logically distinct mechanisms.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71694beta diversitycommunity assemblyHill numbersmesocosmmetacommunityscale |
| spellingShingle | William Godsoe Warwick J. Allen Lauren P. Waller Barbara I. P. Barratt Sarah P. Flanagan Zachary H. Marion Jason M. Tylianakis Elena Moltchanova Ian A. Dickie Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity Ecology and Evolution beta diversity community assembly Hill numbers mesocosm metacommunity scale |
| title | Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity |
| title_full | Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity |
| title_fullStr | Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity |
| title_short | Rapid Shifts in Relative Abundance Obscure Temporal Diversity Changes in a Metacommunity |
| title_sort | rapid shifts in relative abundance obscure temporal diversity changes in a metacommunity |
| topic | beta diversity community assembly Hill numbers mesocosm metacommunity scale |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71694 |
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