The mechanistic basis of changes in community assembly in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and productivity
Elo, M., Kareksela, S., Haapalehto, T., Vuori, H., Aapala, K. and Kotiaho, J. (2018). The mechanistic basis of changes in community assembly in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and productivity. 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology. doi: 10.17011/conference/eccb2018/107462
Authors
Date
2018Copyright
© the Authors, 2018
In the human-dominated world the natural drivers of species diversity, such as productivity and habitat heterogeneity, have been accompanied by anthropogenic disturbance resulting in increased extinction rates at global scale. However, decrease in species richness does not necessarily result in local decreases in species richness. Moreover, species richness provides limited information on processes that cause changes within and between communities, and the mechanistic basis of these changes remains elusive. As all patterns in community ecology can be understood as a result of four processes (speciation, selection, drift, and dispersal), the effect of disturbance should depend on how disturbance disrupt these processes. We studied the effects of disturbance and productivity on species richness, community composition, and beta diversity (i.e. spatial variation in community composition) in the vegetation of 120 boreal peatlands. Using null model approach we determined whether community assembly processes differ between pristine and disturbed sites. Sites represented three peatland ecosystem types, each with two levels of productivity. Half of the sites were pristine and half were drained for forestry, which causes a major ecosystem level disturbance. Our results showed that high productivity sites encompassed higher species richness and different communities than low productivity sites. By contrast, we did not observe any difference in beta diversity between high and low productivity sites. Between pristine and drained sites neither species richness and nor beta diversity differed. Instead, peatland communities in drained were dissimilar to pristine sites, thus showing changes not attributed to drift but to selection, most likely based on altered hydrology, pH, and nutrient gradients. Moreover, the changes due to drainage were toward forest communities which could lead to landscape level homogenization. Effective ways to combine knowledge of the landscape level changes among disturbed areas and the understanding of the mechanisms affecting communities locally are important for reaching the ambitious global targets of restoring the degraded ecosystems.
1. Elo et al. (2016) The mechanistic basis of changes in community assembly in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and productivity. Ecosphere 7: e01310
...
![showless](/themes/JYX2//images/showless.png)
![showmore](/themes/JYX2//images/showmore.png)
Publisher
Open Science Centre, University of JyväskyläConference
ECCB2018: 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology. 12th - 15th of June 2018, Jyväskylä, Finland
Original source
https://peerageofscience.org/conference/eccb2018/107462/Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- ECCB 2018 [712]
License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
The mechanistic basis of changes in community assembly in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and productivity
Elo, Merja; Kareksela, Santtu; Haapalehto, Tuomas; Vuori, Hilja; Aapala, Kaisu; Kotiaho, Janne Sakari (Ecological Society of America, 2016)Anthropogenic disturbance often causes changes in communities. However, the mechanistic basis of these changes remains elusive. As all patterns in community ecology can be understood as a result of four processes ... -
Anthropogenic disturbance favors regional generalists over specialists
Koskela, Tuuli (2016)Ihmisen toiminta aiheuttaa muutoksia yhteisöissä maailmanlaajuisesti. Ihmisvaikutteiset, eli antropogeeniset häiriöt muuttavat ekosysteemien luonnollista häiriödynamiikkaa aikaansaaden ominaisuuksiltaan uudenlaisia ... -
Contrasting Effects of Chronic Anthropogenic Disturbance on Activity and Species Richness of Insectivorous Bats in Neotropical Dry Forest
Meramo, Katarina; Ovaskainen, Otso; Bernard, Enrico; Silva, Carina Rodrigues; Laine, Veronika N.; Lilley, Thomas M. (Frontiers Media SA, 2022)For prioritizing conservation actions, it is vital to understand how ecologically diverse species respond to environmental change caused by human activity. This is particularly necessary considering that chronic human ... -
Half a century of multiple anthropogenic stressors has altered northern forest understory plant communities
Strengbom, Joachim; Hedwall, Per-Ola; Gustafsson, Lena; Brunet, Jörg; Lindbladh, Matts; Axelsson, Anna-Lena (Open Science Centre, University of Jyväskylä, 2018)The boreal forests constitute the largest forest biome in the northern hemisphere. These forests are under increasing anthropogenic impact from intensified forest management, eutrophication and climate change, which may ... -
Impacts of anthropogenic factors on fish community structure in Lebialem-Mone Forest Landscape of Cameroon
Ettagbor, Hans (2010)Two sites of the Cross River within the Lebialem-Mone forest landscape of Cameroon were chosen, one of the sites faced with human activities (test site) and the other with no human pressure (control site). The lengths and ...