Management applications of discontinuity theory

Abstract

Summary1. Human impacts on the environment are multifaceted and can occur across distinct spatiotemporal scales. Ecological responses to environmental change are therefore difficult to predict, and entail large degrees of uncertainty. Such uncertainty requires robust tools for management to sustain ecosystem goods and services and maintain resilient ecosystems. 2. We propose an approach based on discontinuity theory that accounts for patterns and processes at distinct spatial and temporal scales, an inherent property of ecological systems. Discontinuity theory has not been applied in natural resource management and could therefore improve ecosystem management because it explicitly accounts for ecological complexity. 3. Synthesis and applications. We highlight the application of discontinuity approaches for meeting management goals. Specifically, discontinuity approaches have significant potential to measure and thus understand the resilience of ecosystems, to objectively identify critical scales of space and time in ecological systems at which human impact might be most severe, to provide warning indicators of regime change, to help predict and understand biological invasions and extinctions and to focus monitoring efforts. Discontinuity theory can complement current approaches, providing a broader paradigm for ecological management and conservation.

Biodiversity change is uncoupled from species richness trends: Consequences for conservation and monitoring

“…implemented by Dornelas, Gotelli, et al., ) as a baseline for the realised values. Still, the comparative analysis of SER r and SER a allow systematic assessment of co‐occurring dominance and identity shifts (Figure ), which informs more integrated assessments of biodiversity that incorporate functional trait information or scale‐transitive analyses (Angeler & Allen, ; Hill et al., ; Pereira et al., ; Scholes & Biggs, ). It also provides a first step towards the understanding of mechanisms driving biodiversity change in monitoring (Truchy, Angeler, Sponseller, Johnson, & McKie, ; Urban et al., ) and thus the type of information needed to make management decisions (Tittensor et al., ).…”

Quantifying resilience

“…Discontinuity theory and its application to objectively identify spatiotemporal scaling patterns in ecosystems have been pioneered using body size distribution of animals (Angeler et al . ). Animals of similar sizes perceive resources in the environment similarly and therefore presumably operate at a specific scale.…”

Quantifying spatial resilience

“…; Angeler et al . ), determining the role of connectivity, dispersal and other movements in conferring resilience (Underwood et al . ), assessing the relevance of network membership for node resilience and the relevance of node participation for network resilience (Keitt, Urban & Milne ; Moore, Grewar & Cumming ), evaluating the relationship of spatial landscape metrics to resilience (Cumming 2011b; Uden et al .…”