Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology

Stroud, James T.; Bush, Michael R.; Ladd, Mark C.; Nowicki, Robert J.; Shantz, Andrew A.; Sweatman, Jennifer L.

doi:10.1002/ece3.1651

Cited by 102 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…We note that a current lack of metacommunity studies of bioaerosols can be linked partially to difficulties with the term community (sensu Riklefs 1976, Stroud et al 2015 in microbial systems because interactions among co-occurring microbial taxa are often negligible or unknown (Boon et al 2014). This is particularly true for atmospheric microbes; whose densities are much lower than those in terrestrial and aquatic environments.…”

Section: A Metacommunity Framework For Microbes In Precipitationmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Spatiotemporal patterns of microbial composition and diversity in precipitation

Aho

Weber

Christner

et al. 2019

Ecological Monographs

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Microbes in the atmosphere have broad ecological impacts, including the potential to trigger precipitation through species and strains that act as ice nucleation particles. To characterize spatiotemporal trends of microbial assemblages in precipitation we sequenced 16S (bacterial) and 18S (fungal) rRNA gene amplicon libraries collected from 72 precipitation events in three U.S. states (Idaho, Louisiana, and Virginia) over four seasons. We considered these data from the perspective of a novel metacommunity framework. In agreement with our heuristic, we found evidence for distinct mechanisms underlying the composition and diversity of bacterial and fungal assemblages in precipitation. Specifically, we determined that (1) bacterial operational taxonomic unit (OTU) composition of precipitation was strongly associated with macroscale drivers including season and high-altitude characteristics of storms; (2) fungal OTU composition was strongly correlated with mesoscale drivers including particular spatial locations; (3) b-diversity (heterogeneity of taxa among samples) for both bacteria and fungi was largely maintained by turnover of taxa; however, (4) bacterial assemblages had higher contributions to total b-diversity from nestedness (i.e., lower richness assemblages were largely taxonomic subsets of richer assemblages), due to losses of taxa during dispersal, particularly among potential ice nucleation active bacteria; and (5) fungal assemblages had higher contributions to total b-diversity from turnover due to OTU replacement. Spatiotemporal trends in precipitation-borne metacommunities allowed delineation of a large number of statistically significant indicator taxa for particular sites and seasons, including trends for bacteria that are potentially ice nucleation active. Our findings advance understanding regarding the dispersion of aerosolized microbes via wet deposition, and the development of theory concerning potential assembly rules for bioaerosol assemblages.

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Section: A Metacommunity Framework For Microbes In Precipitationmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…We note that a current lack of metacommunity studies of bioaerosols can be linked partially to difficulties with the term community (sensu Riklefs , Stroud et al. ) in microbial systems because interactions among co‐occurring microbial taxa are often negligible or unknown (Boon et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal patterns of microbial composition and diversity in precipitation

Aho

Weber

Christner

et al. 2019

Ecological Monographs

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“…To the best of our knowledge, a data set compiling range shifts of species related to contemporary climate change and their corresponding traits does not currently exist. The second approach is to conduct a formal meta‐analysis of study‐level effect sizes for aggregated data from published studies that compared geographic distributions of assemblages (taxonomically related species occurring together in space; Stroud et al., ) sampled in the 20th century prior to climate change with resurveys of distributions after contemporary climate change and then tested whether species traits accounted for heterogeneity in range shifts. Meta‐analysis of aggregated data encompasses a set of rigorous statistical techniques (Glass, ; Koricheva & Gurevitch, ) that have been used to synthesize evidence for over three decades in the social sciences (Hines, Hungerford, & Tomera, ; White, ) and over two decades in ecology (Aguilar, Ashworth, Galetto, & Aizen, ; Jarvinen, ; McKnight, García‐Berthou, Srean, & Rius, ; Myers & Mertz, ; Weber, Stevens, Diniz‐Filho, & Grelle, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species’ traits as predictors of range shifts under contemporary climate change: A review and meta‐analysis

MacLean

Beissinger

2017

Global Change Biology

230

262

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A growing body of literature seeks to explain variation in range shifts using species' ecological and life-history traits, with expectations that shifts should be greater in species with greater dispersal ability, reproductive potential, and ecological generalization. Despite strong theoretical support for species' traits as predictors of range shifts, empirical evidence from contemporary range shift studies remains limited in extent and consensus. We conducted the first comprehensive review of species' traits as predictors of range shifts, collecting results from 51 studies across multiple taxa encompassing over 11,000 species' responses for 54 assemblages of taxonomically related species occurring together in space. We used studies of assemblages that directly compared geographic distributions sampled in the 20th century prior to climate change with resurveys of distributions after contemporary climate change and then tested whether species traits accounted for heterogeneity in range shifts. We performed a formal meta-analysis on study-level effects of body size, fecundity, diet breadth, habitat breadth, and historic range limit as predictors of range shifts for a subset of 21 studies of 26 assemblages with sufficient data. Range shifts were consistent with predictions based on habitat breadth and historic range limit. However, body size, fecundity, and diet breadth showed no significant effect on range shifts across studies, and multiple studies reported significant relationships that contradicted predictions. Current understanding of species' traits as predictors of range shifts is limited, and standardized study is needed for traits to be valid indicators of vulnerability in assessments of climate change impacts.

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“…The processes that facilitate species coexistence and determine patterns of community assembly have been the focus of major debates throughout modern studies of ecology and evolution (Weiher and Keddy 2001, Fukami 2015, Stroud et al 2015. Historically, community assembly dynamics have been inferred from observed patterns of species occurrences and distributions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological character displacement alters the outcome of priority effects during community assembly

Stroud

Giery

Outerbridge

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Character displacement may facilitate species coexistence through niche partitioning. However, the degree to which character displacement influences broader patterns of community assembly is unclear. Here, we capitalize on a natural experiment of community assembly on the oceanic island of Bermuda. Over the past century, three species of ecologically similar but distantly related Anolis lizards have been introduced to Bermuda where no Anolis has ever naturally existed. The Jamaican anole (A. grahami) arrived first in 1905 and dispersed rapidly across the island. Five decades later, the Antiguan anole (A. leachii) and the Barbadian anole (A. extremus) were introduced to independent locations. In 1991, A. leachii and A. extremus were observed to nearly meet at a contact zone, but not yet to coexist. We record that subsequent range expansion at this contact zone has been asymmetrical; A. leachii invaded the range of A. extremus, but reciprocal invasion by A. extremus has not occurred. When in allopatry in Bermuda, both species occupy identical ecological space. However, A. leachii underwent rapid ecological character displacement to use arboreal habitat when invading the range of A. extremus. These findings highlight how character displacement may influence the process of dispersal and drive patterns of coexistence and community assembly.

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Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology

Cited by 102 publications

References 38 publications

Spatiotemporal patterns of microbial composition and diversity in precipitation

Spatiotemporal patterns of microbial composition and diversity in precipitation

Species’ traits as predictors of range shifts under contemporary climate change: A review and meta‐analysis

Ecological character displacement alters the outcome of priority effects during community assembly

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