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Equivalence and dissimilarity of ecosystem states

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  • Boit, Alice
  • Spencer, Matthew

Abstract

Measuring (dis)similarity between ecosystem states is a key theme in ecology. Much of community and ecosystem ecology is devoted to searching for patterns in ecosystem similarity from an external observer's viewpoint, using variables such as species abundances, measures of diversity and complexity. However, from the point of view of organisms in the ecosystem, proportional population growth rates are the only relevant aspect of ecosystem state, because natural selection acts on groups of organisms with different proportional population growth rates. We therefore argue that two ecosystem states are equivalent if and only if, for each species they contain, the proportional population growth rate does not differ between the states. Based on this result, we develop species-level and aggregated summary measures of ecosystem state and discuss their ecological meaning. We illustrate our approach using a long-term dataset on the plankton community from the Central European Lake Constance. We show that the first three principal components of proportional population growth rates describe most of the variation in ecosystem state in Lake Constance. We strongly recommend using proportional population growth rates and the derived equivalence classes for comparative ecosystem studies. This opens up new perspectives on important existing topics such as alternative stable ecosystem states, community assembly, and the processes generating regularities in ecosystems.

Suggested Citation

  • Boit, Alice & Spencer, Matthew, 2019. "Equivalence and dissimilarity of ecosystem states," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 396(C), pages 12-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:396:y:2019:i:c:p:12-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.01.009
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yuan Yuan & Stephen T. Buckland & Phil J. Harrison & Sergey Foss & Alison Johnston, 2016. "Using Species Proportions to Quantify Turnover in Biodiversity," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 21(2), pages 363-381, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2020. "Export product diversification and tax performance quality in developing countries," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 849-876, October.
    2. Sturbois, A. & De Cáceres, M. & Sánchez-Pinillos, M. & Schaal, G. & Gauthier, O. & Mao, P. Le & Ponsero, A. & Desroy, N., 2021. "Extending community trajectory analysis: New metrics and representation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 440(C).

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