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402

Linking intrinsic scales of ecological processes to characteristic scales of biodiversity and functioning patternsuse asterix (*) to get italics
Yuval R. Zelnik, Matthieu Barbier, David W. Shanafelt, Michel Loreau, Rachel M. GermainPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
2023
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ecology is a science of scale, which guides our description of both ecological processes and patterns, but we lack a systematic understanding of how process scale and pattern scale are connected. Recent calls for a synthesis between population ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology motivate the integration of phenomena at multiple levels of organization.<br>Furthermore, many studies leave out the scaling of a critical process: species interactions, which may be non-local through movement or foraging and must be distinguished from dispersal scales.&nbsp;<br>Here, we use simulations to explore the consequences of three different process scales (species interactions, dispersal, and the environment) on emergent patterns of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and their relationship, in a spatially-explicit landscape and stable equilibrium setting. A major result of our study is that the spatial scales of dispersal and species interactions have opposite effects: a larger dispersal scale homogenizes spatial biomass patterns, while a larger interaction scale amplifies their heterogeneity.&nbsp;<br>Interestingly, the specific scale at which dispersal and interaction scales begin to influence landscape patterns depends on the scale of environmental heterogeneity -- in other words, the scale of one process allows important scales to emerge in other processes.&nbsp;<br>This interplay between process scales, i.e., a situation where no single process dominates, can only occur when the environment is heterogeneous and the scale of dispersal small.<br>Finally, contrary to our expectations, we observe that the spatial scale of ecological processes is more clearly reflected in landscape patterns (i.e., distribution of local outcomes) than in global patterns such as Species-Area Relationships or large-scale biodiversity-functioning relationships. Overall we conclude that long-range interactions often act differently and even in opposite ways to dispersal, and that the landscape patterns that emerge from the interplay of long-ranged interactions, dispersal and environmental heterogeneity are not well captured by often-used metrics like the Species-Area Relationship.</p>
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5543190You should fill this box only if you chose 'Codes have been used in this study'. URL must start with http:// or https://
spatial patterns, landscape structure, local vs. regional scales, species-area relationships, dispersal
NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).
Biodiversity, Community ecology, Dispersal & Migration, Ecosystem functioning, Landscape ecology, Theoretical ecology
No need for them to be recommenders of PCIEcology. Please do not suggest reviewers for whom there might be a conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to review preprints written by close colleagues (with whom they have published in the last four years, with whom they have received joint funding in the last four years, or with whom they are currently writing a manuscript, or submitting a grant proposal), or by family members, friends, or anyone for whom bias might affect the nature of the review - see the code of conduct
e.g. John Doe [john@doe.com]
2021-10-13 23:24:45
David Alonso