Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 20, Issue 12, Pages 1534-1545Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12861
Keywords
Alpha diversity; alpha variability; beta diversity; biodiversity; CoRRE data base; patchiness; plant communities; primary productivity; species synchrony
Categories
Funding
- Long Term Ecological Research Network Communications Office
- Jornada Basin Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) [NSF DEB-1235828]
- ARC LTER RSF [16-14-10208]
- Cedar Creek LTER
- Konza Prairie LTER
- Macarthur Agro-Ecological Research Center
- Niwot LTER
- Plum Island Estuary
- Sevilleta LTER
- DOE-TES [DE-SC0008339]
- NSF-LTREB [DEB-0950080, DEB-1457100]
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
- RSF [16-14-10208]
- Global Atmospheric Nitrogen Environment (GANE) thematic programme of the UK Natural Environmental Research Council [GST022701]
- NSF [DBI-1400370]
- Experimental Drought in Grasslands Experiment [EF-1137293]
- Russian Science Foundation [16-14-10208] Funding Source: Russian Science Foundation
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1557009, 1440478, 1026843] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1807529] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0008339] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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Temporal stability of ecosystem functioning increases the predictability and reliability of ecosystem services, and understanding the drivers of stability across spatial scales is important for land management and policy decisions. We used species-level abundance data from 62 plant communities across five continents to assess mechanisms of temporal stability across spatial scales. We assessed how asynchrony (i.e. different units responding dissimilarly through time) of species and local communities stabilised metacommunity ecosystem function. Asynchrony of species increased stability of local communities, and asynchrony among local communities enhanced metacommunity stability by a wide range of magnitudes (1-315%); this range was positively correlated with the size of the metacommunity. Additionally, asynchronous responses among local communities were linked with species' populations fluctuating asynchronously across space, perhaps stemming from physical and/or competitive differences among local communities. Accordingly, we suggest spatial heterogeneity should be a major focus for maintaining the stability of ecosystem services at larger spatial scales.
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