Publication Date:
2017-11-14
Description:
Ecological stability is the central framework to understand an ecosystem’s ability to absorb or
recover from environmental change. Recent modelling and conceptual work suggests that stability
is a multidimensional construct comprising different response aspects. Using two freshwater mesocosm
experiments as case studies, we show how the response to single perturbations can be
decomposed in different stability aspects (resistance, resilience, recovery, temporal stability) for
both ecosystem functions and community composition. We find that extended community recovery
is tightly connected to a nearly complete recovery of the function (biomass production),
whereas systems with incomplete recovery of the species composition ranged widely in their biomass
compared to controls. Moreover, recovery was most complete when either resistance or resilience
was high, the latter associated with low temporal stability around the recovery trend. In
summary, no single aspect of stability was sufficient to reflect the overall stability of the system.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
Format:
application/pdf
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