Abstract
Multidimensional analysis of community stability has recently emerged as an overarching approach to evaluating ecosystem response to disturbance. However, the approach has previously been applied only in experimental and modelling studies. We applied this concept to an 18-year time series (2000-2017) of macroinvertebrate community dynamics from a southeast Alaskan river to further develop and test the approach in relation to the effects of two extreme flood events occurring in 2005 (event 1) and 2014 (event 2). Five components of stability were calculated for pairs of pre- or post-event years. Individual components were tested for differences between pre- and post-event time periods. Stability components' pairwise correlations were assessed and ellipsoids of stability were developed for each time period and compared to a null model derived from the permuted dataset. Only one stability component demonstrated a significant difference between time periods. In contrast, 80% of moderate and significant correlations between stability components were degraded post-disturbance and significant changes to the form of stability ellipsoids were observed. Ellipsoids of stability for all periods after the initial disturbance (2005) were not different to the null model. Our results illustrate that the dimensionality of stability approach can be applied to natural ecosystem time-series data. The major increase in dimensionality of stability observed following disturbance potentially indicates significant shifts in the processes which drive stability following disturbance. This evidence improves our understanding of community response beyond what is possible through analysis of individual stability components.
Highlights
Changing land use, pollutants and climate change are driving declines in biodiversity (Tickner et al, 2020) with associated effects on ecosystem and community stability (Fussmann et al, 2014)
We applied this concept to an 18-year time series (2000–2017) of macroinvertebrate community dynamics from a southeast Alaskan river to further develop and test the approach in relation to the effects of two extreme flood events occurring in 2005 and 2014. 3
Our study illustrates that the multidimensional stability concept can be applied successfully to long-term, observational macroinvertebrate community data with results demonstrating clear, yet temporally variable responses to flood disturbances in Wolf Point Creek
Summary
Pollutants and climate change are driving declines in biodiversity (Tickner et al, 2020) with associated effects on ecosystem and community stability (Fussmann et al, 2014). Long-term studies of floods have typically measured multiple components of community stability but treated them independently (Milner et al, 2018; Robinson et al, 2018; Woodward et al, 2015) These kinds of time-series data offer significant potential for evaluation and development of the multidimensional stability approach. | Journal of Animal Ecolo gy 3 response of individual aquatic macroinvertebrate stability components to disturbance can vary, total density often recovers rapidly (Woodward et al, 2015) whereas community structure response is less predictable (Hillebrand & Kunze, 2020; Milner et al, 2018) These varied rates and extents of response will disrupt the correlations between stability components, thereby increasing dimensionality. This habitat modification will alter biotic processes and density- dependent effects (Punttila et al, 1996) present within the community, weakening the correlations which underpin low dimensionality (Radchuk et al, 2019) which can be further disrupted by subsequent floods
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