An Investigation of Species–Area Relationships in Marine Systems at Large Spatial Scales

2021 ◽  
pp. 438-456
Author(s):  
Karl Inne Ugland ◽  
Alexandra Kraberg
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Marine Systems ◽  
Species Area

scholarly journals There and back again, an organic carbon journey: mapping pathways and loops

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maike Iris Esther Scheffold ◽  
Inga Hense
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Qualitative Model ◽  
Marine Systems ◽  
Additional Tool ◽  
General Pathway ◽  
Marine System ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Embedded Process

Abstract. Understanding and determining where organic carbon (OC) ends up in the ocean and how long it remains there is one of the most pressing tasks of our time, as the fate of OC in the ocean links to the climate system. To provide an additional tool to accomplish this and other related tasks, we map and conceptualize OC pathways in a qualitative model. The model is complementary to existing concepts of OC processes and pathways which are based mainly on quantifications and observations of current states and dominant processes. Our model, on the contrary, presents general pathway patterns and embedded processes without focusing on dominant processes or pathways or omitting rare ones. By mapping, comparing, and condensing pathways and involved spatial scales, we define three remineralization and two recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon loops that close within the marine systems. Pathways that exit the marine system comprise inorganic atmospheric, OC atmospheric, and long-term sediment loops. With the defined loops and the embedded process options, the model is flexible and can be adapted to different systems, changing understanding or changing mechanisms. As such, it can help tracking pathway changes and assessing the impact of human interventions on pathways, marine ecosystems, and the oceanic organic carbon cycle.

scholarly journals Species-area relationships emerge from multiple coexistence mechanisms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garcia-Callejas ◽  
Ignasi Bartomeus ◽  
Oscar Godoy
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Collective Effects ◽  
Demographic Stochasticity ◽  
Species Dominance ◽  
Species Area

The increase of species richness with area is a universal phenomenon on Earth. However, this observation contrasts with our poor understanding of how these species-area relationships (SARs) emerge from the collective effects of area, spatial heterogeneity, and local interactions. By combining a structuralist approach with five years of empirical observations in a highly-diverse grassland, we show that,contrary to expectations, spatial heterogeneity plays a little role in the accumulation of species richness with area in our system. Instead, as we increase the sampled area more species combinations are realized, and they coexist mainly due to direct pairwise interactions rather than by changes in single-species dominance or by indirect interactions. We also identify a small set of transient species with small population sizes that are consistently found across spatial scales. These findings empirically support the importance of the architecture of species interactions together with demographic stochasticity for driving SARs.

scholarly journals A universal scaling method for biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.E. Barry ◽  
G.A. Pinter ◽  
J.W. Strini ◽  
K. Yang ◽  
I.G. Lauko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Tropical Dry Forest ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Additional Species ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Species Area

SummaryGlobal biodiversity is declining at rates faster than at any other point in human history. Experimental manipulations of biodiversity at small spatial scales have demonstrated that communities with fewer species consistently produce less biomass than higher diversity communities. However, understanding how the global extinction crisis is likely to impact global ecosystem functioning will require applying these local and largely experimental findings to natural systems at substantially larger spatial and temporal scales. Here we propose that we can use two simple macroecological patterns – the species area curve and the biomass-area curve – to upscale the species richness-biomass relationship. We demonstrate that at local spatial scales, each additional species will contribute more to biomass production with increasing area sampled because the species-area curve saturates and the biomass-area curve increases monotonically. We use species-area and biomass-area curves from a Minnesota grassland and a Panamanian tropical dry forest to examine the species richness – biomass relationship at three and ten sampling extents, respectively. In both datasets, the observed relationship between biodiversity and biomass production at every sampling extent was predicted from simple species-area and biomass-area relationships. These findings suggest that macroecological patterns like the species-area curve underpin the scaling of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and can be used to predict these relationships at the global scales where they are relevant for species loss.

scholarly journals Global biogeography of chemosynthetic symbionts reveals both localized and globally distributed symbiont groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (29) ◽  
pp. e2104378118
Author(s):  
Jay T. Osvatic ◽  
Laetitia G. E. Wilkins ◽  
Lukas Leibrecht ◽  
Matthieu Leray ◽  
Sarah Zauner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Genetic Exchange ◽  
Marine Systems ◽  
Marine Bivalves ◽  
Bacterial Endosymbionts ◽  
Evolutionary Success ◽  
Globally Distributed ◽  
Symbiont Species

In the ocean, most hosts acquire their symbionts from the environment. Due to the immense spatial scales involved, our understanding of the biogeography of hosts and symbionts in marine systems is patchy, although this knowledge is essential for understanding fundamental aspects of symbiosis such as host–symbiont specificity and evolution. Lucinidae is the most species-rich and widely distributed family of marine bivalves hosting autotrophic bacterial endosymbionts. Previous molecular surveys identified location-specific symbiont types that “promiscuously” form associations with multiple divergent cooccurring host species. This flexibility of host–microbe pairings is thought to underpin their global success, as it allows hosts to form associations with locally adapted symbionts. We used metagenomics to investigate the biodiversity, functional variability, and genetic exchange among the endosymbionts of 12 lucinid host species from across the globe. We report a cosmopolitan symbiont species, Candidatus Thiodiazotropha taylori, associated with multiple lucinid host species. Ca. T. taylori has achieved more success at dispersal and establishing symbioses with lucinids than any other symbiont described thus far. This discovery challenges our understanding of symbiont dispersal and location-specific colonization and suggests both symbiont and host flexibility underpin the ecological and evolutionary success of the lucinid symbiosis.

A Decision Framework for Coastal Infrastructure to Optimize Biotic Resistance and Resilience in a Changing Climate

BioScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 833-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Mayer-Pinto ◽  
Katherine A Dafforn ◽  
Emma L Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biotic Resistance ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Ecological Theory ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Marine Systems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Ecological Theories

Abstract Coastal ecosystems are under growing pressure from human activities such as pollution and climate change. Although the rapidly growing numbers of humans living in coastal areas is a large part of the problem, there is great opportunity to improve the resistance and resilience of biotic communities via creative changes to the engineering design of built infrastructure. Here, we apply ecological theories to create a framework for adaptive building in marine systems that can be applied by managers worldwide. We explain how climate effects could be mitigated across different spatial scales with both physical and biological interventions. This requires an approach based on ecological theory that incorporates our understanding of how systems withstand (resistance) or recover (resilience) from impacts and takes into account future local and global environmental conditions. By translating ecological theory into practical application, we propose a framework for the choice and design of coastal infrastructure that can underpin effective, forward-looking conservation strategies.

scholarly journals Nested versus independent sampling: Solving the mystery of contradictory species-area relationships

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Reinhard ◽  
Barbara Drossel
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Power Law ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Species Distributions ◽  
Nested Sampling ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Meta Review ◽  
Species Area

AbstractSpecies-area relationships (SARs) describe how the number of species increases with the size of the area surveyed, and they usually take the shape of a power law on regional spatial scales. A meta-review of empirical data has shown that the exponent of the power law is on average larger when the areas are sampled in a nested manner, compared to sampling of independent areas such as islands of different sizes. As this is in contrast to ecological reasoning, we performed computer simulations of three qualitatively different models that generate species distributions in space and time by the mechanisms of speciation, dispersal, and extinction. We find that in all cases and over a wide parameter range the SARs obtained by nested sampling have a smaller slope in the regional scale than those obtained by independent sampling. We explain the discrepancy to the empirical data by the different spatial scales on which the two types of empirical investigations were performed.

scholarly journals The map of biodiversity: From local to global scales

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Anton Pardo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Habitat Size ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Regional Species Pool ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship

Species richness is not homogeneous in space and it normally presents differences when comparing among different sites. These differences often respond to gradients in one or several factors which create biodiversity patterns in space and are scale-dependent. At a local scale, diversity patterns depend on the habitat size (species-area relationship), the productivity, the environmental harshness, the frequency and intensity of disturbance, or the regional species pool. Regional diversity may be influenced by environmental heterogeneity (increasing dissimilarity), although it could act also at smaller or larger spatial scales, and the connectivity among habitats. Finally, at a global scale, diversity patterns are found with the latitude, the altitude or the depth, although these factors are surrogates or one or several environmental variables (productivity, area, isolation, or harshness).

scholarly journals The relationship between the spatial scaling of biodiversity and ecosystem stability

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Delsol ◽  
Michel Loreau ◽  
Bart Haegeman
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Ecosystem Stability ◽  
Spatial Scaling ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Spatial Dependencies ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Ecosystem Level ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractEcosystem stability and its link with biodiversity have been mainly studied at the local scale. Here we present a simple theoretical model to address the joint dependence of diversity and stability on spatial scale, from local to continental. The notion of stability we use is based on the temporal variability of an ecosystem-level property, such as primary productivity. In this way, our model integrates the well-known species-area relationship (SAR) with a recent proposal to quantify the spatial scaling of stability, called the invariability-area relationship (IAR). To explore the possible links between the two relationships, we contrast two assumptions about the spatial decay of correlations. In case species differences determine spatial decorrelation, the IAR is a duplicate of the SAR; in case decorrelation is directly determined by spatial separation, the IAR is unrelated to the SAR. We apply the two model variants to explore the effects of species loss and habitat destruction on stability, and find a rich variety of multi-scale spatial dependencies. Our work emphasizes the importance of studying diversity and stability across spatial scales, and provides a point of reference for mechanistic models and data analyses.

scholarly journals A new dataset on plant occurrences on small islands, including species abundances and functional traits across different spatial scales

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Schrader ◽  
Soetjipto Moeljono ◽  
Junus Tambing ◽  
Cornelia Sattler ◽  
Holger Kreft
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Small Islands ◽  
Species Dispersal ◽  
Competitive Strategies ◽  
New Information ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Occurrences

We introduce a new dataset of woody plants on 60 small tropical islands located in the Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia. The dataset includes incidence, abundance and functional trait data for 57 species. All islands were sampled using a standardised transect and plot design providing detailed information on plant occurrences at different spatial scales ranging from the local (plot and transect scale) to the island scale. In addition, the dataset includes information on key plant functional traits linked to species dispersal, resource acquisition and competitive strategies. The dataset can be used to address ecological questions connected to the species-area relationship and community assembly processes on small islands and in isolated habitats. The dataset yields detailed information on plant community structure and links incidence, abundance and functional trait data at different spatial scales. Furthermore, this is the first plant-island dataset for the Raja Ampat archipelago, a remote and poorly studied region, and provides important new information on species occurrences.

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