Work

The Imbalance of Nature: The Role of Species Environmental Responses for Community Stability

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Understanding stability is crucial for predicting ecological responses to environmental fluctuations. While the diversity‐stability relationship is well studied, the role of species' fundamental responses remains underexplored. We investigate how the distribution of species' fundamental responses, captured by a novel metric—imbalance—drives community stability through asynchrony and population stability. Using a protist microcosm experiment, we manipulated species richness and response distributions (defined as interspecific variation in species performance curves) under fluctuating temperature at different nutrient concentrations. Results show that lower imbalance leads to higher temporal stability, while richness has no effect. Structural equation modelling revealed that asynchrony and population stability explain 90% of the variation in stability. Imbalance estimated from monocultures predicted community stability, suggesting that fundamental species responses drove community stability. This study offers new insights into the responses of ecological systems to environmental change.

Source: Ecology Letters

DOI: 10.1111/ele.70224

Authors: Francesco Polazzo, Til Hämmig, Owen L. Petchey, Frank Pennekamp

Institution: University of Zurich

Language: English

Topic: Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $5,300

Funder: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung