The Impact of Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Disturbances on Ecosystem Stability.

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Yuval R ZelnikMichel Loreau

Abstract

Ecosystems constantly face disturbances which vary in their spatial and temporal features, yet little is known on how these features affect ecosystem recovery and persistence, i.e., ecosystem stability. We address this issue by considering three ecosystem models with different local dynamics, and ask how their stability properties depend on the spatial and temporal properties of disturbances. We measure the spatial dimension of disturbances by their spatial extent while controlling for their overall strength, and their temporal dimension by the average frequency of random disturbance events. Our models show that the return to equilibrium following a disturbance depends strongly on the disturbance's extent, due to rescue effects mediated by dispersal. We then reveal a direct relation between the temporal variability caused by repeated disturbances and the recovery from an isolated disturbance event. Although this could suggest a trivial dependency of ecosystem response on disturbance frequency, we find that this is true only up to a frequency threshold, which depends on both the disturbance spatial features and the ecosystem dynamics. Beyond this threshold the response changes qualitatively, displaying spatial clusters of distur...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 10, 2020·PloS One·Jennifer M FraterrigoJames A Rusak
Jul 9, 2020·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Claire Jacquet, Florian Altermatt
May 5, 2021·Ecology Letters·Adam Thomas ClarkStanley Harpole
Jul 13, 2021·Marine Pollution Bulletin·Gianluca SaràMar Bosch-Belmar

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