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University of Nebraska - Lincoln
School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications
Consumer–resource dynamics; Daphnia; differential equation fitting; diversity; functional traits; life history; paradox of enrichment; phenotypic dissimilarity; stability.
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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Life History Traits And Functional Processes Generate Multiple Pathways To Ecological Stability, John P. Delong, Torrance C. Hanley, Jean P. Gibert, Linda M. Puth, David M. Post
Life History Traits And Functional Processes Generate Multiple Pathways To Ecological Stability, John P. Delong, Torrance C. Hanley, Jean P. Gibert, Linda M. Puth, David M. Post
School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications
Stability contributes to the persistence of ecological communities, yet the interactions among different stabilizing forces are poorly understood. We assembled mesocosms with an algal resource and one to eight different clones of the consumer Daphnia ambigua and tracked algal and Daphnia abundances through time. We then fitted coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to the consumer–resource time series. We show that variation in different components of stability (local stability and the magnitude of population fluctuations) across mesocosms arises through variation in life history traits and the functional processes represented by ODE model parameters. Local stability was enhanced by increased algal growth …