Ecological Synthesis and Its Role in Advancing Knowledge

Halpern, Benjamin S.; Berlow, Eric L.; Williams, Rich; Borer, Elizabeth T.; Davis, Frank W.; Dobson, Andy; Enquist, Brian J.; Froehlich, Halley E.; Gerber, Leah R.; Lortie, Christopher J.; O’Connor, Mary I.; Regan, Helen M.; Vázquez, Diego P.; Willard, Geoff

doi:10.1093/biosci/biaa105

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…How sensitive are inferences about dietary diversity to the methods used to document diets? Synthetic approaches are necessary to answer these questions (Halpern et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Dietary abundance distributions: Dominance and diversity in vertebrate diets

2021

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Diet composition is among the most important yet least understood dimensions of animal ecology. Inspired by the study of species abundance distributions (SADs), we tested for generalities in the structure of vertebrate diets by characterising them as dietary abundance distributions (DADs). We compiled data on 1167 population‐level diets, representing >500 species from six vertebrate classes, spanning all continents and oceans. DADs near‐universally (92.5%) followed a hollow‐curve shape, with scant support for other plausible rank‐abundance‐distribution shapes. This strong generality is inherently related to, yet incompletely explained by, the SADs of available food taxa. By quantifying dietary generalisation as the half‐saturation point of the cumulative distribution of dietary abundance (sp50, minimum number of foods required to account for 50% of diet), we found that vertebrate populations are surprisingly specialised: in most populations, fewer than three foods accounted for at least half the diet. Variation in sp50 was strongly associated with consumer type, with carnivores being more specialised than herbivores or omnivores. Other methodological (sampling method and effort, taxonomic resolution), biological (body mass, frugivory) and biogeographic (latitude) factors influenced sp50 to varying degrees. Future challenges include identifying the mechanisms underpinning the hollow‐curve DAD, its generality beyond vertebrates, and the biological determinants of dietary generalisation.

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“…How sensitive are inferences about dietary diversity to the methods used to document diets? Synthetic approaches are necessary to answer these questions (Halpern et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary abundance distributions: Dominance and diversity in vertebrate diets

2021

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“…Reuse of evidence is a function of scientific syntheses including those that leverage data (Halpern et al, 2020). There are at least three forms of ecological synthesis science including those that compile data, methods, and/or theory (Halpern et al, 2020). In both primary and synthesis science, this is often described as reproducible science because the goal of our work including code and data can be reused and replication of an experiment or theory in a novel/alternative context (Alston & Rick, 2021; Shaw et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

Replication and reuse are increasingly common, legitimate, and critical forms of science in ecology, evolution, and the environmental sciences. Reuse of evidence is a function of scientific syntheses including those that leverage data (Halpern et al, 2020). There are at least three forms of ecological synthesis science including those that compile data, methods, and/or theory (Halpern et al, 2020).

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confidence: 99%

Tabular strategies for metadata in ecology, evolution, and the environmental sciences

Lortie

Poulsen

Brun

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Data support knowledge development and theory advances in ecology and evolution. We are increasingly reusing data within our teams and projects and through the global, openly archived datasets of others. Metadata can be challenging to write and interpret, but it is always crucial for reuse. The value metadata cannot be overstated—even as a relatively independent research object because it describes the work that has been done in a structured format. We advance a new perspective and classify methods for metadata curation and development with tables. Tables with templates can be effectively used to capture all components of an experiment or project in a single, easy‐to‐read file familiar to most scientists. If coupled with the R programming language, metadata from tables can then be rapidly and reproducibly converted to publication formats including extensible markup language files suitable for data repositories. Tables can also be used to summarize existing metadata and store metadata across many datasets. A case study is provided and the added benefits of tables for metadata, a priori, are developed to ensure a more streamlined publishing process for many data repositories used in ecology, evolution, and the environmental sciences. In ecology and evolution, researchers are often highly tabular thinkers from experimental data collection in the lab and/or field, and representations of metadata as a table will provide novel research and reuse insights.

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“…Over the last few decades, there has been an explosion of studies examining changes in ecological communities and environmental conditions (Hines et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2011;Stork & Astrin, 2014). The desire to draw generalizable conclusions from these studies led to a period of synthesis, during which information from individual studies was compiled allowing for quantitative evaluation of the variation in ecological changes across systems (Gurevitch et al, 1992;Halpern et al, 2020;Hillebrand et al, 2020). Such comprehensive and quantitative synthesis studies enabled researchers to identify generalizable patterns in biodiversity (Calatayud et al, 2020), trends in biodiversity change (Blowes et al, 2019;Dornelas et al, 2014), and relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (e.g., Cardinale et al, 2012;Gessner et al, 2010;Lefcheck et al, 2015;Soliveres et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%