scholarly journals Beyond a single patch: local and regional processes explain diversity patterns in a seagrass epifaunal metacommunity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keila A Stark ◽  
Patrick L Thompson ◽  
Jennifer Yakimishyn ◽  
Lynn Lee ◽  
Emily M Adamczyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Seagrass Meadows ◽  
High Dispersal ◽  
Invertebrate Abundance ◽  
Local And Regional Processes ◽  
Abundance And Distribution ◽  
Regional Processes

AbstractEcological communities are jointly structured by dispersal, density-independent responses to environmental conditions and density-dependent biotic interactions. Metacommunity ecology provides a framework for understanding how these processes combine to determine community composition among local sites that are regionally connected through dispersal. In 17 temperate seagrass meadows along the British Columbia coast, we tested the hypothesis that eelgrass (Zostera marinaL.) epifaunal invertebrate assemblages are influenced by local environmental conditions, but that high dispersal rates at larger spatial scales dampen effects of environmental differences. We used hierarchical joint species distribution modelling to understand the contribution of environmental conditions, spatial distance between meadows, and species co-occurrences to epifaunal invertebrate abundance and distribution across the region. We found that patterns of taxonomic compositional similarity among meadows were inconsistent with dispersal limitation and meadows in the same region were often no more similar to each other than meadows over 1000 km away. Abiotic environmental conditions (temperature, dissolved oxygen) explained a small fraction of variation in taxonomic abundances patterns across the region. We found novel co-occurrence patterns among taxa that could not be explained by shared responses to environmental gradients, suggesting the possibility that interspecific interactions influence seagrass invertebrate abundance and distribution. Our results add to mounting evidence that suggests that the biodiversity and ecosystem functions provided by seagrass meadows reflect ecological processes occurring both within meadows and across seascapes, and suggest that management of eelgrass habitat for biodiversity may be most effective when both local and regional processes are considered.

scholarly journals Beyond a single patch: local and regional processes explain diversity patterns in a seagrass epifaunal metacommunity

2020 ◽  
Vol 655 ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
KA Stark ◽  
PL Thompson ◽  
J Yakimishyn ◽  
L Lee ◽  
EM Adamczyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Seagrass Meadows ◽  
High Dispersal ◽  
Invertebrate Abundance ◽  
Local And Regional Processes ◽  
Abundance And Distribution ◽  
Regional Processes

Ecological communities are jointly structured by dispersal, density-independent responses to environmental conditions, and density-dependent biotic interactions. Metacommunity ecology provides a framework for understanding how these processes combine to determine community seagrass meadows along the British Columbia coast. We tested the hypothesis that eelgrass Zostera marina L. epifaunal invertebrate assemblages are influenced by local environmental conditions but that high dispersal rates at larger spatial scales dampen the effects of environmental differences. We used hierarchical joint species distribution modelling to understand the contribution of environmental conditions, spatial distance between meadows, and species co-occurrences to epifaunal invertebrate abundance and distribution across the region. We found that patterns of taxonomic compositional similarity among meadows were inconsistent with dispersal limitation, and meadows in the same region were often no more similar to each other than meadows over 1000 km away. Abiotic environmental conditions (temperature, dissolved oxygen) explained a small fraction of variation in taxonomic abundance patterns across the region. We found novel co-occurrence patterns among taxa that could not be explained by shared responses to environmental gradients, suggesting the possibility that interspecific interactions influence seagrass invertebrate abundance and distribution. Our results suggest that biodiversity and ecosystem functions provided by seagrass meadows reflect ecological processes occurring both within meadows and across seascapes and that management of eelgrass habitat for biodiversity may be most effective when both local and regional processes are considered.

scholarly journals Experimental dispersal reveals characteristic scales of biodiversity in a natural landscape

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (17) ◽  
pp. 4447-4452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Germain ◽  
Sharon Y. Strauss ◽  
Benjamin Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Dispersal Limitation ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Local Diversity ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Regional Process ◽  
Regional Processes

Ecological theory posits that dispersal among habitat patches links local communities and is a key “regional” process that maintains biological diversity. However, manipulations required to experimentally test regional processes are infeasible for most systems, and thus more work is needed to detect the scales at which regional processes manifest and their overall effect on diversity. In a Californian grassland, a hotspot for global biodiversity, we used a seed vacuum to increase dispersal at spatial scales varying from 1 m to 10 km while maintaining a realistic spatial structure of species pools and environmental conditions. We found that dispersal limitation has a profound influence on diversity; species richness increased with the spatial scale of seed mixing, doubling in plots that received seed from large (≥5 km) compared with small (≤5 m) scales. This increase in diversity corresponded to an increase in how well species distributions were explained by environmental conditions, from modest at small scales (R2= 0.34) to strong at large scales (R2= 0.52). Responses to the spatial scale of seed mixing were nonlinear, with no differences below 5 m or above 5 km. Nonlinearities were explained by homogeneity of environmental conditions below 5 m and by a lack of additional variation in the species pool above 5 km. Our approach of manipulating natural communities at different spatial scales reveals (i) nonlinear transitions in the importance of environmental sorting and dispersal, and (ii) the negative effects of dispersal limitation on local diversity, consistent with previous research suggesting that large numbers of species are headed toward regional extinction.

scholarly journals Biogeography of acoustic biodiversity of NW Mediterranean coralligenous reefs

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Di Iorio ◽  
Manon Audax ◽  
Julie Deter ◽  
Florian Holon ◽  
Julie Lossent ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Predator Species ◽  
The North ◽  
Mediterranean Habitats ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Nw Mediterranean

AbstractMonitoring the biodiversity of key habitats and understanding the drivers across spatial scales is essential for preserving ecosystem functions and associated services. Coralligenous reefs are threatened marine biodiversity hotspots that are challenging to monitor. As fish sounds reflect biodiversity in other habitats, we unveiled the biogeography of coralligenous reef sounds across the north-western Mediterranean using data from 27 sites covering 2000 km and 3 regions over a 3-year period. We assessed how acoustic biodiversity is related to habitat parameters and environmental status. We identified 28 putative fish sound types, which is up to four times as many as recorded in other Mediterranean habitats. 40% of these sounds are not found in other coastal habitats, thus strongly related to coralligenous reefs. Acoustic diversity differed between geographical regions. Ubiquitous sound types were identified, including sounds from top-predator species and others that were more specifically related to the presence of ecosystem engineers (red coral, gorgonians), which are key players in maintaining habitat function. The main determinants of acoustic community composition were depth and percentage coverage of coralligenous outcrops, suggesting that fish-related acoustic communities exhibit bathymetric stratification and are related to benthic reef assemblages. Multivariate analysis also revealed that acoustic communities can reflect different environmental states. This study presents the first large-scale map of acoustic fish biodiversity providing insights into the ichthyofauna that is otherwise difficult to assess because of reduced diving times. It also highlights the potential of passive acoustics in providing new aspects of the correlates of biogeographical patterns of this emblematic habitat relevant for monitoring and conservation.

Protected Areas: offering security to whom, when and where?

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALICE B. KELLY ◽  
A. CLARE GUPTA
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Term Management ◽  
Over Time

SUMMARYThis study considers the issue of security in the context of protected areas in Cameroon and Botswana. Though the literature on issues of security and well-being in relation to protected areas is extensive, there has been less discussion of how and in what ways these impacts and relationships can change over time, vary with space and differ across spatial scales. Looking at two very different historical trajectories, this study considers the heterogeneity of the security landscapes created by Waza and Chobe protected areas over time and space. This study finds that conservation measures that various subsets of the local population once considered to be ‘bad’ (e.g. violent, exclusionary protected area creation) may be construed as ‘good’ at different historical moments and geographical areas. Similarly, complacency or resignation to the presence of a park can be reversed by changing environmental conditions. Changes in the ways security (material and otherwise) has fluctuated within these two protected areas has implications for the long-term management and funding strategies of newly created and already existing protected areas today. This study suggests that parks must be adaptively managed not only for changing ecological conditions, but also for shifts in a protected area's social, political and economic context.

scholarly journals Topographic Effects on the Spatial Species Associations in Diverse Heterogeneous Tropical Evergreen Forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2468
Author(s):  
Nguyen Hong Hai ◽  
Yousef Erfanifard ◽  
Van Bac Bui ◽  
Trinh Hien Mai ◽  
Any Mary Petritan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Spatial Association ◽  
Topographic Effects ◽  
Habitat Association ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Evergreen Forests ◽  
Partial Overlap

Studying spatial patterns and habitat association of plant communities may provide understanding of the ecological mechanisms and processes that maintain species coexistence. To conduct assessments of correlation between community compositions and habitat association, we used data from two topographically different plots with 2 ha area in tropical evergreen forests with the variables recorded via grid systems of 10 × 10 m subplots in Northern-Central Vietnam. First, we tested the relationship between community composition and species diversity indices considering the topographical variables. We then assessed the interspecific interactions of 20 dominant plant species using the nearest-neighbor distribution function, Dij(r), and Ripley’s K-function, Kij(r). Based on the significant spatial association of species pairs, indices of interspecific interaction were calculated by the quantitative amounts of the summary statistics. The results showed that (i) community compositions were significantly influenced by the topographic variables and (ii) almost 50% significant pairs of species interactions were increased with increasing spatial scales up to 10–15 m, then declined and disappeared at scales of 30–40 m. Segregation and partial overlap were the dominant association types and disappeared at larger spatial scales. Spatial segregation, mixing, and partial overlap revealed the important species interactions in maintaining species coexistence under habitat heterogeneity in diverse forest communities.

A reinterpretation of Scottish ‘hummocky moraine’ and its significance for the deglaciation of the Scottish Highlands during the Younger Dryas or Loch Lomond Stadial

1993 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Bennett ◽  
Geoffrey S. Boulton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Field Survey ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
North West ◽  
Scottish Highlands ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
The North ◽  
Loch Lomond

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to demonstrate that much of the ‘hummocky moraine’ present within the northern part of the LochLomond Readvance ice cap formerly situated in the North West Scottish Highlands may be interpreted as suites of ice-front moraines deposited during active decay. These landforms can be used to reconstruct ice cap decay, whichleads to important insights into the shrinking form of the ice cap and associated environmental conditions. Evidence has been collected from 10803 airphotographs and from detailed field survey. It is presented at three spatial scales.

scholarly journals Comparative landscape dynamics of two anuran species: climate-driven interaction of local and regional processes

2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl E. Werner ◽  
Rick A. Relyea ◽  
Kerry L. Yurewicz ◽  
David K. Skelly ◽  
Christopher J. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Dynamics ◽  
Anuran Species ◽  
Local And Regional Processes ◽  
Regional Processes

scholarly journals Weathering the impacts of climate change

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
Brian Helmuth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Heat Budget ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Physiological Tolerance ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Sessile Organisms

Ectothermic organisms experience their local environments in ways that humans can have difficulty conceptualizing. Physics-based (ecomechanical) approaches, for example heat budget models, can lend insights into how an organism’s very local environmental conditions (microclimate) can drive niche-level conditions such as body temperature; these in turn drive physiological processes. Quantitative methods also allow insights into the temporal and spatial scales that may ultimately determine responses to larger-scale environmental change. For example, for small, sessile organisms, microhabitats such as crevices in rocks may provide microrefugia that allow survival during heat waves. As a result, larger-scale recovery following heat waves (rescue effects) may ultimately be influenced by much smaller-scale processes. Ecomechanics techniques also facilitate the use of interventions such as shading that can maintain environmental conditions within physiological tolerance levels.

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