Publication Date:
2010-05-29
Description:
Net primary productivity is a principal driver of biodiversity; large-scale regions with higher productivity generally have more species. This pattern emerges because beta-diversity (compositional variation across local sites) increases with productivity, but the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are unknown. Using data from a long-term experiment in replicate ponds, I show that higher beta-diversity at higher productivity resulted from a stronger role for stochastic relative to deterministic assembly processes with increasing productivity. This shift in the relative importance of stochasticity was most consistent with the hypothesis of more intense priority effects leading to multiple stable equilibria at higher productivity. Thus, shifts in community assembly mechanisms across a productivity gradient may underlie one of the most prominent biodiversity gradients on the planet.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chase, Jonathan M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Jun 11;328(5984):1388-91. doi: 10.1126/science.1187820. Epub 2010 May 27.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology and Tyson Research Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. jchase@wustl.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20508088" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Biodiversity
;
Cyanobacteria
;
*Ecosystem
;
Environment
;
Eukaryota
;
Extinction, Biological
;
Food Chain
;
*Fresh Water
;
Photosynthesis
;
Plants
;
Population Dynamics
;
Stochastic Processes
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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