Earthquake impacts on microcrustacean communities inhabiting groundwater-fed springs alter species-abundance distribution patterns

Fattorini, Simone; Lorenzo, Tiziana Di; Galassi, Diana M. P.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20011-1

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Given that these events are increasing in frequency amid the environmental crisis of the new millennium (Rahmstorf & Coumou, 2011), the study of stochastic phenomena has emerged as a central topic in ecology (Scheffer et al ., 2001). Recent papers used groundwater crustaceans to elucidate some of the mechanisms by which earthquakes affect the composition and structure of biological communities (Galassi et al ., 2014; Fattorini et al ., 2017; Fattorini, Di Lorenzo, & Galassi, 2018; Morimura et al ., 2020). Additional studies have focused on the effect of other events, such as heavy precipitation (Calderón‐Gutiérrez, Sánchez‐Ortiz, & Huato‐Soberanis, 2018) and flooding (Pacioglu et al ., 2019).…”

Section: Community Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental research questions in subterranean biology

et al. 2020

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Five decades ago, a landmark paper in Science titled The Cave Environment heralded caves as ideal natural experimental laboratories in which to develop and address general questions in geology, ecology, biogeography, and evolutionary biology. Although the ‘caves as laboratory’ paradigm has since been advocated by subterranean biologists, there are few examples of studies that successfully translated their results into general principles. The contemporary era of big data, modelling tools, and revolutionary advances in genetics and (meta)genomics provides an opportunity to revisit unresolved questions and challenges, as well as examine promising new avenues of research in subterranean biology. Accordingly, we have developed a roadmap to guide future research endeavours in subterranean biology by adapting a well‐established methodology of ‘horizon scanning’ to identify the highest priority research questions across six subject areas. Based on the expert opinion of 30 scientists from around the globe with complementary expertise and of different academic ages, we assembled an initial list of 258 fundamental questions concentrating on macroecology and microbial ecology, adaptation, evolution, and conservation. Subsequently, through online surveys, 130 subterranean biologists with various backgrounds assisted us in reducing our list to 50 top‐priority questions. These research questions are broad in scope and ready to be addressed in the next decade. We believe this exercise will stimulate research towards a deeper understanding of subterranean biology and foster hypothesis‐driven studies likely to resonate broadly from the traditional boundaries of this field.

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Section: Community Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental research questions in subterranean biology

et al. 2020

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“…For instance, the effects of earthquakes on groundwater habitats was recently documented to determine a general reduction of diversity (Galassi et al 2014), variations in abundance patterns (Fattorini et al 2018) and an increase in the spatial niche overlap of previously isolated species (Fattorini et al 2017). For instance, the effects of earthquakes on groundwater habitats was recently documented to determine a general reduction of diversity (Galassi et al 2014), variations in abundance patterns (Fattorini et al 2018) and an increase in the spatial niche overlap of previously isolated species (Fattorini et al 2017).…”

Section: Environmental Stochasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taking advantage of local site-specific phenomena, such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions, a few authors have recently shown that subterranean habitats may actually represent unusual, yet promising systems in which to investigate environmental stochasticity. For instance, the effects of earthquakes on groundwater habitats was recently documented to determine a general reduction of diversity (Galassi et al 2014), variations in abundance patterns (Fattorini et al 2018) and an increase in the spatial niche overlap of previously isolated species (Fattorini et al 2017). Ortuño et al (2013) showed how periodic flooding may extirpate native community in specific subterranean habitats (the so-called 'Alluvial MSS'), enhancing the possibility to use these systems to study re-colonization processes and meta-population dynamics, just like in the famous case of the Krakatau Islands (Thornton et al 1988, Whittaker et al 1989.…”

Section: Environmental Stochasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding answers in the dark: caves as models in ecology fifty years after Poulson and White

2018

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The use of semi-isolated habitats such as oceanic islands, lakes and mountain summits as model systems has played a crucial role in the development of evolutionary and ecological theory. Soon after the discovery of life in caves, different pioneering authors similarly recognized the great potential of these peculiar habitats as biological model systems. In their 1969 paper in Science, 'The cave environment', Poulson and White discussed how caves can be used as natural laboratories in which to study the underlying principles governing the dynamics of more complex environments. Together with other seminal syntheses published at the time, this work contributed to establishing the conceptual foundation for expanding the scope and relevance of cave-based studies. Fifty years after, the aim of this review is to show why and how caves and other subterranean habitats can be used as eco-evolutionary laboratories. Recent advances and directions in different areas are provided, encompassing community ecology, trophicwebs and ecological networks, conservation biology, macroecology and climate change biology. Special emphasis is given to discuss how caves are only part of the extended network of fissures and cracks that permeate most substrates and, thus, their ecological role as habitat islands is critically discussed. Numerous studies have quantified the relative contribution of abiotic, biotic and historical factors in driving species distributions and community turnovers in space and time, from local to regional scales. Conversely, knowledge of macroecological patterns of subterranean organisms at a global scale remains largely elusive, due to major geographical and taxonomical biases. Also, knowledge regarding subterranean trophic webs and the effect of anthropogenic climate change on deep subterranean ecosystems is still limited. In these research fields, the extensive use of novel molecular and statistical tools may hold promise for quickly producing relevant information not accessible hitherto.

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“…Several models have been proposed to describe the SADs (see Whittaker, 2014a,b, 2015;Baldridge et al, 2016;Fattorini et al, 2018). One of the most commonly used models is the so-called log-normal (McGill, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent Rarity Properties in Carabid Communities From Chinese Steppes With Different Climatic Conditions

et al. 2021

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Species abundance distributions (SADs) are increasingly used to investigate how species community structure changes in response to environmental variations. SAD models depict the relative abundance of species recorded in a community and express fundamental aspects of the community structure, namely patterns of commonness and rarity. However, the influence of differences in environmental conditions on SAD characteristics is still poorly understood. In this study we used SAD models of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in three grassland ecosystems (desert, typical, and meadow steppes) in China. These ecosystems are characterized by different aridity conditions, thus offering an opportunity to investigate how SADs are influenced by differences in environmental conditions (mainly aridity and vegetation cover, and hence productivity). We used various SAD models, including the meta-community zero sum multinomial (mZSM), the lognormal (PLN) and Fisher’s logseries (LS), and uni- and multimodal gambin models. Analyses were done at the level of steppe type (coarse scale) and for different sectors within the same steppe (fine scale). We found that the mZSM model provided, in general, the best fit at both analysis scales. Model parameters were influenced by the scale of analysis. Moreover, the LS was the best fit in desert steppe SAD. If abundances are rarefied to the smallest sample, results are similar to those without rarefaction, but differences in models estimates become more evident. Gambin unimodal provided the best fit with the lowest α-value observed in desert steppe and higher values in typical and meadow steppes, with results which were strongly affected by the scale of analysis and the use of rarefaction. Our results indicate that all investigated communities are adequately modeled by two similar distributions, the mZSM and the LS, at both scales of analyses. This indicates (1) that all communities are characterized by a relatively small number of species, most of which are rare, and (2) that the meta-communities at the large scale maintain the basic SAD shape of the local communities. The gambin multimodal models produced exaggerated α-values, which indicates that they overfit simple communities. Overall, Fisher’s α, mZSM θ, and gambin α-values were substantially lower in the desert steppe and higher in the typical and meadow steppes, which implies a decreasing influence of environmental harshness (aridity) from the desert steppe to the typical and meadow steppes.

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Earthquake impacts on microcrustacean communities inhabiting groundwater-fed springs alter species-abundance distribution patterns

Cited by 20 publications

References 99 publications

Fundamental research questions in subterranean biology

Fundamental research questions in subterranean biology

Finding answers in the dark: caves as models in ecology fifty years after Poulson and White

Emergent Rarity Properties in Carabid Communities From Chinese Steppes With Different Climatic Conditions

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