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Zhang H, Chase JM, Liao J. Habitat amount modulates biodiversity responses to fragmentation. Nat Ecol Evol 2024; 8:1437-1447. [PMID: 38914711 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02445-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/26/2024]
Abstract
Anthropogenic habitat destruction leads to habitat loss and fragmentation, both of which interact to determine how biodiversity changes at the landscape level. While the detrimental effects of habitat loss are clear, there is a long-standing debate about the role of habitat fragmentation per se. We identify the influence of the total habitat amount lost as a modulator of the relationship between habitat fragmentation and biodiversity. Using a simple metacommunity model characterized by colonization-competition (C-C) trade-offs, we show that the magnitude of habitat loss can induce a unimodal response of biodiversity to habitat fragmentation. When habitat loss is low, habitat fragmentation promotes coexistence by suppressing competitively dominant species, while habitat fragmentation at high levels of habitat loss can shape many smaller isolated patches that drive extinctions of superior competitors. While the C-C trade-off is not the only mechanism for biodiversity maintenance, the modulation of habitat fragmentation effects by habitat loss is probably common. Reanalysis of a globally distributed dataset of fragmented animal and plant metacommunities shows an overall pattern that supports this hypothesis, suggesting a resolution to the debate regarding the relative importance of positive versus negative fragmentation effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helin Zhang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion Prevention and Green Development, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, China
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - Jonathan M Chase
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Computer Science, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - Jinbao Liao
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion Prevention and Green Development, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China.
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2
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Buche L, Bartomeus I, Godoy O. Multitrophic Higher-Order Interactions Modulate Species Persistence. Am Nat 2024; 203:458-472. [PMID: 38489780 DOI: 10.1086/729222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
AbstractEcologists increasingly recognize that interactions between two species can be affected by the density of a third species. How these higher-order interactions (HOIs) affect species persistence remains poorly understood. To explore the effect of HOIs stemming from multiple trophic layers on a plant community composition, we experimentally built a mesocosm with three plants and three pollinator species arranged in a fully nested and modified network structure. We estimated pairwise interactions among plants and between plants and pollinators, as well as HOIs initiated by a plant or a pollinator affecting plant species pairs. Using a structuralist approach, we evaluated the consequences of the statistically supported HOIs on the persistence probability of each of the three competing plant species and their combinations. HOIs substantially redistribute the strength and sign of pairwise interactions between plant species, promoting the opportunities for multispecies communities to persist compared with a non-HOI scenario. However, the physical elimination of a plant-pollinator link in the modified network structure promotes changes in per capita pairwise interactions and HOIs, resulting in a single-species community. Our study provides empirical evidence of the joint importance of HOIs and network structure in determining species persistence within diverse communities.
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3
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Zhang H, Bearup D, Barabás G, Fagan WF, Nijs I, Chen D, Liao J. Complex nonmonotonic responses of biodiversity to habitat destruction. Ecology 2023; 104:e4177. [PMID: 37782819 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2023] [Revised: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/04/2023]
Abstract
It has typically been assumed that habitat destruction, characterized by habitat loss and fragmentation, has consistently negative effects on biodiversity. While numerous empirical studies have shown the detrimental effects of habitat loss, debate continues as to whether habitat fragmentation has universally negative effects. To explore the effects of habitat fragmentation, we developed a simple model for site-occupancy dynamics in fragmented landscapes. With the model, we demonstrate that a competition-colonization trade-off can result in nonlinear oscillatory responses in biodiversity to both habitat loss and fragmentation. However, the overall pattern of habitat loss reducing species richness is still established, in line with empirical observations. Interestingly, the existence of localized oscillations in biodiversity can explain the mixed responses of species richness to habitat fragmentation per se observed in nature, thereby reconciling the debate on the fragmentation-diversity relationship. Therefore, this study offers a parsimonious mechanistic explanation for empirically observed biodiversity patterns in response to habitat destruction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - Daniel Bearup
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - György Barabás
- Division of Theoretical Biology, Department IFM, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
| | - William F Fagan
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
| | - Ivan Nijs
- Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Dongdong Chen
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
| | - Jinbao Liao
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
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Guo G, Barabás G, Takimoto G, Bearup D, Fagan WF, Chen D, Liao J. Towards a mechanistic understanding of variation in aquatic food chain length. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:1926-1939. [PMID: 37696523 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023]
Abstract
Ecologists have long sought to understand variation in food chain length (FCL) among natural ecosystems. Various drivers of FCL, including ecosystem size, resource productivity and disturbance, have been hypothesised. However, when results are aggregated across existing empirical studies from aquatic ecosystems, we observe mixed FCL responses to these drivers. To understand this variability, we develop a unified competition-colonisation framework for complex food webs incorporating all of these drivers. With competition-colonisation tradeoffs among basal species, our model predicts that increasing ecosystem size generally results in a monotonic increase in FCL, while FCL displays non-linear, oscillatory responses to resource productivity or disturbance in large ecosystems featuring little disturbance or high productivity. Interestingly, such complex responses mirror patterns in empirical data. Therefore, this study offers a novel mechanistic explanation for observed variations in aquatic FCL driven by multiple environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guanming Guo
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - György Barabás
- Division of Theoretical Biology, Department IFM, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gaku Takimoto
- Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Daniel Bearup
- School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, University of Kent, Parkwood Road, Canterbury, UK
| | - William F Fagan
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
| | - Dongdong Chen
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
| | - Jinbao Liao
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
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Guo G, Zhao F, Nijs I, Liao J. Colonization-competition dynamics of basal species shape food web complexity in island metacommunities. MARINE LIFE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 5:169-177. [PMID: 37275541 PMCID: PMC10232389 DOI: 10.1007/s42995-023-00167-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Exploring how food web complexity emerges and evolves in island ecosystems remains a major challenge in ecology. Food webs assembled from multiple islands are commonly recognized as highly complex trophic networks that are dynamic in both space and time. In the context of global climate change, it remains unclear whether food web complexity will decrease in a monotonic fashion when undergoing habitat destruction (e.g., the inundation of islands due to sea-level rise). Here, we develop a simple yet comprehensive patch-dynamic framework for complex food web metacommunities subject to the competition-colonization tradeoff between basal species. We found that oscillations in food web topological complexity (characterized by species diversity, mean food chain length and the degree of omnivory) emerge along the habitat destruction gradient. This outcome is robust to changing parameters or relaxing the assumption of a strict competitive hierarchy. Having oscillations in food web complexity indicates that small habitat changes could have disproportionate negative effects on species diversity, thus the success of conservation actions should be evaluated not only on changes in biodiversity, but also on system robustness to habitat alteration. Overall, this study provides a parsimonious mechanistic explanation for the emergence of food web complexity in island ecosystems, further enriching our understanding of metacommunity assembly. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42995-023-00167-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guanming Guo
- Ministry of Education’s Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022 China
| | - Fei Zhao
- Ministry of Education’s Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022 China
| | - Ivan Nijs
- Research Group in Plants and Ecosystems, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jinbao Liao
- Ministry of Education’s Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022 China
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6
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Guo G, Zhang Z, Zhang H, Bearup D, Liao J. Contrasting effects of dispersal network heterogeneity on ecosystem stability in rock-paper-scissors games. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.1068830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Intransitive competition, typically represented by the classic rock-paper-scissors game, provides an endogenous mechanism promoting species coexistence. As well known, species dispersal and interaction in nature might occur on complex patch networks, with species interacting in diverse ways. However, the effects of different interaction modes, combined with spatial heterogeneity in patch connectivities, have not been well integrated into our general understanding of how stable coexistence emerges in cyclic competition. We thus incorporate network heterogeneity into the classic rock-paper-scissors game, in order to compare ecosystem stability under two typical modes of interaction: species compete to fill empty sites, and species seize each other’s colony sites. On lattice-structured regular networks, the two interaction modes produce similar stability patterns through forming conspecific clusters to reduce interspecific competition. However, for heterogeneous networks, the interaction modes have contrasting effects on ecosystem stability. Specifically, if species compete for colony sites, increasing network heterogeneity stabilizes competitive dynamics. When species compete to fill empty sites, an increase in network heterogeneity leads to larger population fluctuations and therefore a higher risk of stochastic extinctions, in stark contrast to current knowledge. Our findings strongly suggest that particular attention should be devoted to testing which mode of interaction is more appropriate for modeling a given system.
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Chatterjee S, Nag Chowdhury S, Ghosh D, Hens C. Controlling species densities in structurally perturbed intransitive cycles with higher-order interactions. CHAOS (WOODBURY, N.Y.) 2022; 32:103122. [PMID: 36319275 DOI: 10.1063/5.0102599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The persistence of biodiversity of species is a challenging proposition in ecological communities in the face of Darwinian selection. The present article investigates beyond the pairwise competitive interactions and provides a novel perspective for understanding the influence of higher-order interactions on the evolution of social phenotypes. Our simple model yields a prosperous outlook to demonstrate the impact of perturbations on intransitive competitive higher-order interactions. Using a mathematical technique, we show how alone the perturbed interaction network can quickly determine the coexistence equilibrium of competing species instead of solving a large system of ordinary differential equations. It is possible to split the system into multiple feasible cluster states depending on the number of perturbations. Our analysis also reveals that the ratio between the unperturbed and perturbed species is inversely proportional to the amount of employed perturbation. Our results suggest that nonlinear dynamical systems and interaction topologies can be interplayed to comprehend species' coexistence under adverse conditions. Particularly, our findings signify that less competition between two species increases their abundance and outperforms others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sourin Chatterjee
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal 741246, India
| | - Sayantan Nag Chowdhury
- Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B. T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India
| | - Dibakar Ghosh
- Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B. T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India
| | - Chittaranjan Hens
- Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B. T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India
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Liao J, Barabás G, Bearup D. Competition-colonization dynamics and multimodality in diversity-disturbance relationships. Ecology 2022; 103:e3672. [PMID: 35233766 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Revised: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Disturbance has long been recognized as a critical driver of species diversity in community ecology. Recently, it has been found that the well-known intermediate disturbance hypothesis, which predicts a unimodal diversity-disturbance relationship (DDR), fails to describe numerous experimental observations, as empirical DDRs are diverse. Consequently, the precise form of the DDR remains a topic of debate. Here we develop a simple yet comprehensive metacommunity framework that can account for complex competition patterns. Using both numerical simulations and analytical arguments, we show that strongly multimodal DDRs arise naturally, and this multimodality is quite robust to changing parameters or relaxing the assumption of a strict competitive hierarchy. Having multimodality as a robust property of DDRs in competition models suggests that much of the noise observed in empirical DDRs could be a critical signature of the underlying competitive dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinbao Liao
- Research Center for Theoretical Ecology, Jiangxi Normal University, Ziyang Road 99, Nanchang, China
| | - György Barabás
- Division of Theoretical Biology, Department IFM, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.,MTA-ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1A, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Daniel Bearup
- University of Kent, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, Parkwood Road, Canterbury, UK
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Shang Y. A system model of three-body interactions in complex networks: consensus and conservation. Proc Math Phys Eng Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2021.0564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Networked complex systems in a wide range of physics, biology and social sciences involve synergy among multiple agents beyond pairwise interactions. Higher-order mathematical structures such as hypergraphs have been increasingly popular in modelling and analysis of complex dynamical behaviours. Here, we study a simple three-body consensus model, which favourably incorporates higher-order network interactions, higher-order dimensional states, the group reinforcement effect and the social homophily principle. The model features asymmetric roles of acting agents using modulating functions. We analytically establish sufficient conditions for nonlinear consensus and conservation of states for agents with both discrete-time and continuous-time dynamics. We show that higher-order interactions encoded in three-body edges give rise to consensus and conservation for systems with gravity-like and Heaviside-like modulating functions. Furthermore, we illustrate our theoretical results with numerical simulations and examine the system convergence time through a network depreciation process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yilun Shang
- Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
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Chu C, Chen L, Fan P, He Z, Li Y, Liao J, Liu X, Niu K, Si X, Wang S, Xi X. Conceptual and theoretical dimensions of biodiversity research in China: examples from plants. Natl Sci Rev 2021; 8:nwab060. [PMID: 34691697 PMCID: PMC8310762 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwab060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Chengjin Chu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, China
| | - Lei Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Pengfei Fan
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, China
| | - Ziwen He
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, China
| | - Yuanzhi Li
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, China
| | - Jinbao Liao
- Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, Jiangxi Normal University, China
| | - Xubing Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, China
| | - Kechang Niu
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, China
| | - Xingfeng Si
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, China
| | - Shaopeng Wang
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, China
| | - Xinqiang Xi
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, China
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