Ecological theory has been dominated by a focus on long-term or asymptotic behavior as a way to understand natural systems. Yet experiments are done on much shorter timescales, and the relevant ...timescales for ecological systems can also be relatively short. Thus, there is a mismatch between the timescales of most experiments and the timescales of many theoretical investigations. However, recent work has emphasized the importance of transient dynamics rather than long-term behavior in ecological systems, enabling the examination of forces that allow coexistence on ecological timescales. Through an examination of what leads to transients in ecological systems, a deeper appreciation of the forces leading to persistence or coexistence in ecological systems emerges, as well as a general understanding of how population levels can change through time.
Aim
Data on species occurrences are far more common than data on species abundances. However, a central goal of large‐scale ecology is to understand the spatial distribution of abundance. It has been ...proposed that species distribution models trained on species occurrence records may capture variation in species abundance. Here, we gauge support for relationships between species abundance and predicted climatic suitability from species distribution models, and relate the slope of this relationship to species traits, evolutionary relationships and sampling completeness.
Location
USA.
Time period
1658–2017.
Major taxa studied
Mammal and tree species.
Methods, Results
To explore the generality of abundance–suitability relationships, we trained species distribution models on species occurrence and species abundance data for 246 mammal species and 158 tree species, and related model‐predicted occurrence probabilities to population abundance predictions. Further, we related the resulting abundance–suitability relationship coefficients to species traits, geographic range sizes, evolutionary relationships and the number of occurrence records to investigate a potential trait or sampling basis for abundance–suitability relationship detectability. We found little evidence for consistent abundance–suitability relationships in mammal (r¯ = .045) or tree (r¯ = −.005) species, finding nearly as many negative and positive relationships. These relationships had little explanatory power, and coefficients were unrelated to species traits, range size or evolutionary relationships.
Main conclusions
Our findings suggest that species climatic suitability based on occurrence data may not be reflected in species abundances, suggesting a need to investigate nonclimatic sources of species abundance variation.
Transient phenomena in ecology Hastings, Alan; Abbott, Karen C; Cuddington, Kim ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
09/2018, Letnik:
361, Številka:
6406
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
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