Frontiers of Ecology

Thompson, John N.; Reichman, O. J.; Morin, Peter J.; Polis, Gary A.; Power, Mary E.; Sterner, Robert W.; Couch, Carol A.; Gough, Laura; Holt, Robert D.; Hooper, David U.; Keesing, Felicia; Lovell, Charles R.; Milne, Bruce T.; Molles, Manuel C.; Roberts, David W.; Strauss, Sharon Y.

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0015:foe]2.0.co;2

Cited by 153 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…How physical and biological processes, in conjunction with both evolutionary and historical influences, result in the ''coalescence'' of complex and functioning natural communities is a key open question in ecology (69). HOT offers a promising mechanism for the evolution of structure in fire-prone ecosystems, and we hope it leads to insights on ecosystem resilience and conservation of important natural processes.…”

Section: Hot and Real Ecosystems?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfires, complexity, and highly optimized tolerance

Moritz

Morais

Summerell

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

210

169

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Recent, large fires in the western United States have rekindled debates about fire management and the role of natural fire regimes in the resilience of terrestrial ecosystems. This real-world experience parallels debates involving abstract models of forest fires, a central metaphor in complex systems theory. Both real and modeled fire-prone landscapes exhibit roughly power law statistics in fire size versus frequency. Here, we examine historical fire catalogs and a detailed fire simulation model; both are in agreement with a highly optimized tolerance model. Highly optimized tolerance suggests robustness tradeoffs underlie resilience in different fire-prone ecosystems. Understanding these mechanisms may provide new insights into the structure of ecological systems and be key in evaluating fire management strategies and sensitivities to climate change.resilience

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Section: Hot and Real Ecosystems?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfires, complexity, and highly optimized tolerance

Moritz

Morais

Summerell

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

210

169

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“…Much of plant ecological theory has been dominated by debate over the relative importance of these factors, manifest in controversy over plant strategy theory and the relationships between competition intensity, species diversity, and habitat productivity (Reynolds 1999, Aarssen 2001. Among the biological forces structuring plant communities, plant-microbe interactions have received little attention (Thompson et al 2001). This is not surprising, given the overwhelming diversity of soil microbes (Torsvik et al 1994), the technical challenges involved in their study, the tendency to view microbial associates as simply extensions of the plant and their outright exclusion from experimental designs through use of artificial soil mixes or soil amendments that result in depleted microbial communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassroots Ecology: Plant–microbe–soil Interactions as Drivers of Plant Community Structure and Dynamics

Reynolds

Packer

Bever

et al. 2003

Ecology

654

539

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Abstract. A growing body of research on plant-microbe interactions in soil is contributing to the development of a new, microbially based perspective on plant community ecology. Soil-dwelling microorganisms are diverse, and interactions with plants vary with respect to specificity, environmental heterogeneity, and fitness impact. Two microbial processes that may exert key influences on plant community structure and dynamics are microbial mediation of niche differentiation in resource use and feedback dynamics between the plant and soil community. The niche differentiation hypothesis is based on observations that soil nutrients occur in different chemical forms, that different enzymes are required for plant access to these nutrients, and that soil microorganisms are a major source of these enzymes. We predict that plant nutrient partitioning arises from differential associations of plant species with microbes able to access different nutrient pools. Feedback dynamics result from changes in the soil community generated by the specificity of response in plantmicrobe interactions. We suggest that positive feedback between plants and soil microbes plays a central role in early successional communities, while negative feedback contributes both to species replacements and to diversification in later successional communities. We further suggest that plant-microbe interactions in the soil are an important organizing force for large-scale spatial gradients in species richness. The relative balance of positive feedback (a homogenizing force) and negative feedback (a diversifying force) may contribute to observed latitudinal (and altitudinal) diversity patterns. Empirical tests of these ideas are needed, but a microbially based perspective for plant ecology promises to contribute to our understanding of long-standing issues in ecology, and to reveal new areas of future research.

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“…The study of complexity in ecosystems has been recognized as one of the frontiers of ecology (Thompson et al 2001). Many ecosystems exhibit remarkable complexity in both structure and dynamics, which has repeatedly frustrated attempts to predict the response of ecosystems to human interference (Scheffer et al 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐Organization and Vegetation Collapse in Salt Marsh Ecosystems

Koppel¹,

Wal²,

Bakker³

et al. 2005

The American Naturalist

264

118

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Complexity theory predicts that local feedback processes may strongly affect the organization of ecosystems on larger spatial scales. Whether complexity leads to increased resilience and stability or to increased vulnerability and criticality remains one of the dominant questions in ecology. We present a combined theoretical and empirical study of complex dynamics in mineralogenic salt marsh ecosystems that emerge from a positive feedback between clay accumulation and plant growth. Positive feedback induces self-organizing within the ecosystem, which buffers for the strong physical gradient that characterizes the marine-terrestrial boundary, and improves plant growth along the gradient. However, as a consequence of these self-organizing properties, salt marshes approach a critical state as the edge of the salt marsh and the adjacent intertidal flat becomes increasingly steep and vulnerable to wave attack. Disturbance caused, for instance, by a storm may induce a cascade of vegetation collapse and severe erosion on the cliff edge, leading to salt marsh destruction. Our study shows that on short timescales, self-organization improves the functioning of salt marsh ecosystems. On long timescales, however, self-organization may lead to destruction of salt marsh vegetation.

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Frontiers of Ecology

Cited by 153 publications

References 31 publications

Wildfires, complexity, and highly optimized tolerance

Wildfires, complexity, and highly optimized tolerance

Grassroots Ecology: Plant–microbe–soil Interactions as Drivers of Plant Community Structure and Dynamics

Self‐Organization and Vegetation Collapse in Salt Marsh Ecosystems

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