Latitudinal patterns of forest ecosystem stability across spatial scales as affected by biodiversity and environmental heterogeneity

Abstract

Our planet is facing a variety of serious threats from climate change that are unfolding unevenly across the globe. Uncovering the spatial patterns of ecosystem stability is important for predicting the responses of ecological processes and biodiversity patterns to climate change. However, the understanding of the latitudinal pattern of ecosystem stability across scales and of the underlying ecological drivers is still very limited. Accordingly, this study examines the latitudinal patterns of ecosystem stability at the local and regional spatial scale using a natural assembly of forest metacommunities that are distributed over a large temperate forest region, considering a range of potential environmental drivers. We found that the stability of regional communities (regional stability) and asynchronous dynamics among local communities (spatial asynchrony) both decreased with increasing latitude, whereas the stability of local communities (local stability) did not. We tested a series of hypotheses that potentially drive the spatial patterns of ecosystem stability, and found that although the ecological drivers of biodiversity, climatic history, resource conditions, climatic stability, and environmental heterogeneity varied with latitude, latitudinal patterns of ecosystem stability at multiple scales were affected by biodiversity and environmental heterogeneity. In particular, α diversity is positively associated with local stability, while β diversity is positively associated with spatial asynchrony, although both relationships are weak. Our study provides the first evidence that latitudinal patterns of the temporal stability of naturally assembled forest metacommunities across scales are driven by biodiversity and environmental heterogeneity. Our findings suggest that the preservation of plant biodiversity within and between forest communities and the maintenance of heterogeneous landscapes can be crucial to buffer forest ecosystems at higher latitudes from the faster and more intense negative impacts of climate change in the future.

Herbivore exclusion stabilizes alpine grassland biomass production across spatial scales

“…Another notable finding of our study is that herbivore exclusion increased spatial asynchrony but not beta diversity among local communities, which is at odds with that of several recent studies (Chen et al., 2022; Liang et al., 2021; Qiao et al., 2023). The lack of treatment effect on beta diversity in our experiment likely reflects the fact that the same species (e.g., K. pygmaea and S. purpurea ) attained dominance both in the presence and absence of grazers (Figure S6), despite grazing acting to reduce the relative abundance of these dominant species in the unfenced plots.…”

“…The lack of treatment effect on beta diversity in our experiment likely reflects the fact that the same species (e.g., K. pygmaea and S. purpurea ) attained dominance both in the presence and absence of grazers (Figure S6), despite grazing acting to reduce the relative abundance of these dominant species in the unfenced plots. While a positive relationship between beta diversity and spatial asynchrony has been predicted by theory (Wang & Loreau, 2014, 2016), and supported by several empirical studies (Liang et al., 2022; Qiao et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2020), the lack of the relationship between the two has also been reported (Wilcox et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2019). We suggest that the greater spatial asynchrony among local communities under herbivore exclusion likely arose from increased stochastic dynamics of subordinate and rare species (e.g., Gentiana scabra , Oxytropis stracheyana , Trisetum spicatum ) when facing stronger competition from more abundant, dominant plants (Alberti et al., 2017; Segre et al., 2014).…”

Selective logging destabilizes the functioning and composition of forest ecosystems at multiple spatial scales

“…Data are available from the Figshare Digital Repository: https:// doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23683395 (Qiao et al 2023).…”

Ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height, and biodiversity of shrub communities affected by precipitation fluctuations in Northwest China

“…Recently, with the changing global environment, the interactions between ecosystem processes and environmental drivers have attracted significant attention ( Hautier et al., 2015 ; White et al., 2022 ; Qiao et al., 2023 ). Specific environmental drivers may cause long-term impacts on ecosystem functions and sustainability, and exhibit greater spatial heterogeneity with geographic gradients ( Loarie et al., 2009 ; Nishizawa et al., 2022 ).…”

“…(ii) Climate stability during the growing season is critical for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in drylands ( Souza et al., 2016 ; Lu et al., 2019 ). Studies have found that climate stability could affect community functioning by reducing both SD-alpha and SD-beta in temperate grasslands ( Zhang et al., 2019 ), and another study has shown that climate stability is driven by longitude in forest ecosystems ( Qiao et al., 2023 ). (iii) Climate seasonality is believed to be an underestimated factor affecting ecosystem functioning at the macro scales ( Liang et al., 2022 ; Du et al., 2023 ).…”