Metrics of structural change as indicators of chironomid community stability in high latitude lakes

Mayfield, Roseanna J.; Langdon, Peter G.; Doncaster, C. Patrick; Dearing, John A.; Wang, Rong; Nazarova, Larisa; Medeiros, Andrew S.; Brooks, Stephen J.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106594

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…°Disorder and skewness were used here to indicate changes within the ecosystem structure, specifically taxonomic organisation and connectivity (Doncaster et al ., 2016; Wang et al ., 2019; Mayfield et al ., 2020). In the Late Glacial records, °disorder displayed inconsistent trends, decreasing in Ashik, increasing in Abernethy, and indicating no clear change in Muir Park.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Four ecological metrics, taxon richness, beta diversity, compositional disorder and network skewness, were selected as indicators of ecosystem change for the temporal empirical chironomid assemblages. Beta diversity, compositional disorder, and network skewness reflect ecosystem structural change, through taxonomic turnover and taxon organisation (Baselga, 2010; Doncaster et al ., 2016; Wang et al ., 2019; Mayfield et al ., 2020). Palaeoecological datasets often have irregular time series (Glew et al ., 2001), including the records analysed here.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compositional disorder, a measure of nestedness, can be used as a proxy for unpredictability in community composition. Compositional disorder is expressed as degree of disorder (°disorder) and measured on a scale from 0° (perfectly nested sequences) to 100° (perfectly disordered sequences) using subsets of 10 consecutive samples (Doncaster et al ., 2016; Mayfield et al ., 2020). A higher value indicates that the sample was less predictable from previous samples, due to greater dissimilarity between the assemblage compositions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A higher value indicates that the sample was less predictable from previous samples, due to greater dissimilarity between the assemblage compositions. Under low stress conditions, taxa should continually arrive and exit the ecosystem in response to fluctuating environmental variables; this should produce a constant level of °disorder with little directional change (Doncaster et al ., 2016; Mayfield et al ., 2020). Sudden changes in ecosystem composition should produce an abrupt change in °disorder.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We employ a suite of ecological metrics to compare the assemblage composition before and after the climatic change, including ordination, taxon richness, beta diversity, compositional disorder and skewness. These metrics have previously been used to assess chironomid structural change within spatial datasets (Mayfield et al ., 2020); here we use them to assess changing chironomid community structure in temporal records for the first time. To assess how the assemblages may have changed under continued Bølling–Allerød and early Holocene climatic conditions, we test for evidence of departures from a status quo with autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Quaternary chironomid community structure shaped by rate and magnitude of climate change

Mayfield

Langdon

Doncaster

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

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Much is known about how climate change impacts ecosystem richness and turnover, but we have less understanding of its influence on ecosystem structures. Here, we use ecological metrics (beta diversity, compositional disorder and network skewness) to quantify the community structural responses of temperature‐sensitive chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) during the Late Glacial (14 700–11 700 cal a bp) and Holocene (11 700 cal a bp to present). Analyses demonstrate high turnover (beta diversity) of chironomid composition across both epochs; however, structural metrics stayed relatively intact. Compositional disorder and skewness show greatest structural change in the Younger Dryas, following the rapid, high‐magnitude climate change at the Bølling–Allerød to Younger Dryas transition. There were fewer climate‐related structural changes across the early to mid–late Holocene, where climate change was more gradual and lower in magnitude. The reduced impact on structural metrics could be due to greater functional resilience provided by the wider chironomid community, or to the replacement of same functional‐type taxa in the network structure. These results provide insight into how future rapid climate change may alter chironomid communities and could suggest that while turnover may remain high under a rapidly warming climate, community structural dynamics retain some resilience.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Late Quaternary chironomid community structure shaped by rate and magnitude of climate change

Mayfield

Langdon

Doncaster

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

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Assessment of ecological impairment of Arctic streams: Challenges and future directions

Medeiros

Williams

Milošević

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Human impacts alter driver–response relationships in lakes of Southwest China

Zheng

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2021

Limnology & Oceanography

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Biodiversity and ecological stability are closely linked, and over recent timescales, anthropogenic impacts have accelerated losses in both from local to global scales. We attempt to show the combined response of diversity and stability of an aquatic community to changes in human activity as a driver. To address this, we measured the diversity and variability of chironomids and their drivers and nature of response to external conditions over the last century, based on 4 lake sediment sequences from Southwest China, one of world's 36 biodiversity hotspots. Our results showed that the driver–response relationship was linear in a lake without direct human impacts but nonlinear in human directly impacted lakes. Recent decreases in alpha diversity and increases in beta diversity were commonly recorded in all four lakes, suggesting that both species loss and a faster replacement of chironomid taxa are a regional phenomenon. However, in the same context of human‐induced global warming, increased variability and regime shifts only occurred in lowland lakes, directly disturbed by humans, highlighting that direct human impacts have overcome natural forcing as the determinant driver shaping the chironomid composition in these sites. In addition, we found that increases in beta diversity occurred prior to a regime shift and its character depends on how the community responds to the key external pressure. Our findings reveal that direct human disturbances have largely reshaped the chironomid composition and induced an earlier regime shift at the cost of species loss, resilience loss, and a change in driver–response type.

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Metrics of structural change as indicators of chironomid community stability in high latitude lakes

Cited by 16 publications

References 104 publications

Late Quaternary chironomid community structure shaped by rate and magnitude of climate change

Late Quaternary chironomid community structure shaped by rate and magnitude of climate change

Assessment of ecological impairment of Arctic streams: Challenges and future directions

Human impacts alter driver–response relationships in lakes of Southwest China

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