Toward a more temporally explicit framework for community ecology

Abstract

Although ecologists have long understood the fundamentally dynamic nature of communities, ecology has until recently seemed to emphasize other aspects of ecological complexity, such as diversity and spatial structure, ahead of temporal variation. Climate change has made studies into the temporal dimensions of community ecology more immediate and urgent, and has exposed the limits of our general understanding about how species interactions change over time. Here, I suggest four specific ways to continue building toward a more temporally explicit understanding of community ecology: (a) by increasing the representation of temporal change in interaction networks, (b) by developing both specific and general insights into event-driven dynamics, (c) by developing and testing sequential hypotheses to describe proposed explanations that unfold over time and (d) by characterizing seasonal windows of opportunity. A great deal about the temporal dynamics of communities remains uncertain, but temporally explicit studies have the potential to improve our fundamental understanding of how communities function. K E Y W O R D S climate change, dynamic interaction networks, event-driven dynamics, flying gallop, phenology, seasonal windows of opportunity, sequential hypotheses, temporal ecology, time communities

Changes in the analysis of temporal community dynamics data: a 29-year literature review

“…Our review confirms the need for more long-term studies in ecology ( Yang, 2020 ) and the application of multiple analytical approaches to increase understanding of the complexities of temporal community change. Researchers investigating both spatial and temporal dynamics are likely to benefit from using methods in addition to simple descriptive analyses and ordinations.…”

Phenology in a community context: Toward a better understanding of the causes and consequences of phenology in seasonal environments

“…However, strength of species interactions can be dynamic between phenologically interacting species. The review by Yang (2020) suggests that community ecology should increase the temporal resolution of species interactions both in description and conceptualization. Yang articulates four approaches.…”

“…If the diversity of flowering phenology supports keystone pollinators, a reduction of flowering phenological diversity might feedback to plants through pollinator limitation. Species interaction networks at high phenological resolution (Yang, 2020) may be useful to gain such insights.…”

Community context modifies response of host-parasitoid interactions to phenological mismatch under warming

“…Future studies should explicitly consider that the degree of functional redundancy within a community will likely vary during the development of individuals within communities. Regardless, our results suggest that the presence of alternative host species serves as an important buffer to phenological shifts in ecological communities, as it can provide complementary phenologies, increases functional redundancy, and can dampen community responses to variation in biotic and abiotic environments (Yachi & Loreau 1999;Yang 2020).…”