Sammanfattning

Environmental change can cause regime shifts in ecosystems, potentially threatening ecosystem services. It is unclear if the degradation status of ecosystems correlates with their vulnerability to environmental change, and thus the risk of future regime shifts. We assessed resilience in acidified (degraded) and circumneutral (undegraded) lakes with long-term data (1988-2012), using time series modeling. We identified temporal frequencies in invertebrate assemblages, which identifies groups of species whose population dynamics vary at particular temporal scales. We also assessed species with stochastic dynamics, those whose population dynamics vary irregularly and unpredictably over time. We determined the distribution of functional feeding groups of invertebrates within and across the temporal scales identified, and in those species with stochastic dynamics, and assessed attributes hypothesized to contribute to resilience. Three patterns of temporal dynamics, consistent across study lakes, were identified in the invertebrates. The first pattern was one of monotonic change associated with changing abiotic lake conditions. The second and third patterns appeared unrelated to the environmental changes we monitored. Acidified and the circumneutral lakes shared similar levels and patterns of functional richness, evenness, diversity, and redundancy for species within and across the observed temporal scales and for stochastic species groups. These similar resilience characteristics suggest that both lake types did not differ in vulnerability to the environmental changes observed here. Although both lake types appeared equally vulnerable in this study, our approach demonstrates how assessing systemic vulnerability by quantifying ecological resilience can help address uncertainty in predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change across ecosystems.

Nyckelord

Environmental change; Benthic invertebrates; Functional redundancy; Scales; Vulnerability; Time series modeling; Resilience; Functional traits

Publicerad i

Oecologia
2015, Volym: 178, nummer: 3, sidor: 899-913
Utgivare: SPRINGER

SLU författare

• Angeler, David

  • Institutionen för vatten och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Baho, Didier Ludovic

  • Institutionen för vatten och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Johnson, Richard

  • Institutionen för vatten och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

Säkerställa tillgången till och en hållbar förvaltning av vatten och sanitet för alla
Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald


UKÄ forskningsämne

Ekologi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3281-y

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68557