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Full-Text Articles in Population Biology
Integrating Species Traits Into Species Pools, Marko J. Spasojevic, Christopher P. Catano, Joseph A. Lamanna
Integrating Species Traits Into Species Pools, Marko J. Spasojevic, Christopher P. Catano, Joseph A. Lamanna
Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations
Despite decades of research on the species‐pool concept and the recent explosion of interest in trait‐based frameworks in ecology and biogeography, surprisingly little is known about how spatial and temporal changes in species‐pool functional diversity (SPFD) influence biodiversity and the processes underlying community assembly. Current trait‐based frameworks focus primarily on community assembly from a static regional species pool, without considering how spatial or temporal variation in SPFD alters the relative importance of deterministic and stochastic assembly processes. Likewise, species‐pool concepts primarily focus on how the number of species in the species pool influences local biodiversity. However, species pools with similar …
Negative Density Dependence Mediates Biodiversity–Productivity Relationships Across Scales, Joseph A. Lamanna, R Travis Belote, Laura A. Burkle, Christopher P. Catano, Jonathan A. Myers
Negative Density Dependence Mediates Biodiversity–Productivity Relationships Across Scales, Joseph A. Lamanna, R Travis Belote, Laura A. Burkle, Christopher P. Catano, Jonathan A. Myers
Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations
Regional species diversity generally increases with primary productivity whereas local diversity–productivity relationships are highly variable. This scale-dependence of the biodiversity–productivity relationship highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms that govern variation in species composition among local communities, which is known as β-diversity. Hypotheses to explain changes in β-diversity with productivity invoke multiple mechanisms operating at local and regional scales, but the relative importance of these mechanisms is unknown. Here we show that changes in the strength of local density-dependent interactions within and among tree species explain changes in β-diversity across a subcontinental-productivity gradient. Stronger conspecific relative to …
Wildfire Disturbance And Productivity As Drivers Of Plant Species Diversity Across Spatial Scales, Laura A. Burkle, Jonathan A. Myers, R Travis Belote
Wildfire Disturbance And Productivity As Drivers Of Plant Species Diversity Across Spatial Scales, Laura A. Burkle, Jonathan A. Myers, R Travis Belote
Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations
Wildfires influence many temperate terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Historical environmental heterogeneity created by wildfires has been altered by human activities and will be impacted by future climate change. Our ability to predict the impact of wildfire-created heterogeneity on biodiversity is limited because few studies have investigated variation in community composition (beta-diversity) in response to fire. Wildfires may influence beta-diversity through several ecological mechanisms. First, high-severity fires may decrease beta-diversity by homogenizing species composition when they create landscapes dominated by disturbance-tolerant or rapidly colonizing species. In contrast, mixed-severity fires may increase beta-diversity by creating mosaic landscapes containing habitats that support species with …
Ontogenetic Trait Variation Influences Tree Community Assembly Across Environmental Gradients, Marko J. Spasojevic, Elizabeth A. Yablon, Brad Oberle, Jonathan A. Myers
Ontogenetic Trait Variation Influences Tree Community Assembly Across Environmental Gradients, Marko J. Spasojevic, Elizabeth A. Yablon, Brad Oberle, Jonathan A. Myers
Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations
Intraspecific trait variation is hypothesized to influence the relative importance of community assembly mechanisms. However, few studies have explicitly considered how intraspecific trait variation among ontogenetic stages influences community assembly across environmental gradients. Because the relative importance of abiotic and biotic assembly mechanisms can differ among ontogenetic stages within and across environments, ontogenetic trait variation may have an important influence on patterns of functional diversity and inferred assembly mechanisms. We tested the hypothesis that variation in functional diversity across a topo-edaphic gradient differs among ontogenetic stages and that these patterns reflect a shift in the relative importance of different assembly …