The consequences of mass mortality events for the structure and dynamics of biological communities
The consequences of mass mortality events for the structure and dynamics of biological communities
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DOI：
10.1111/oik.06515
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发表时间：
2019-10-11
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Siepielski, Adam M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fey, Samuel B.;Gibert, Jean P.;Siepielski, Adam M.
大规模死亡事件（MMEs）正在迅速发生，相对于受影响生物体的产生时间而言，在很短的时间间隔内发生大量种群损失。以前的工作已经确定，微型微型企业似乎在频率和规模上都在增加；然而，目前，人们对微生态系统对生物群落的影响知之甚少。在这里，我们使用观察到的小微企业的理论和经验数据来了解小微企业如何影响社区的结构和动态。为此，我们建立在现有的资源脉冲和营养级联理论的基础上，表明微型生态系统既与这些生态现象有相似之处，也有不同之处，它们通过共同改变物种相互作用在营养水平上的影响，并提供来自腐烂生物量的资源流入，产生不同的短期和长期影响。其次，我们研究了MMEs的大小、受影响物种的营养水平、整体食物网结构和生态系统类型如何调节由此产生的生态响应。第三，我们将我们的模型与现有的mme观测数据进行了比较，我们的综合研究为通过实验和改进观测数据收集来理解mme提供了一条经验路径。虽然复杂，但解决微型微型企业的后果应该是一个高度优先的研究，因为它们在确定生态系统如何响应罕见事件驱动的环境变化方面发挥作用。
Mass mortality events (MMEs) are rapidly occurring, substantial population losses that transpire within a short time interval relative to the generation time of the affected organism. Previous work has established that MMEs appear to be increasing in frequency and magnitude; however, currently, there is little understanding of the consequences of MMEs for biological communities. Here, we use theory and empirical data from observed MMEs to understand how MMEs impact the structure and dynamics of communities. To do so, we build upon existing resource pulse and trophic cascade theory to show that MMEs both share similarities and diverge from these ecological phenomena, producing distinct short- and long-term impacts by jointly altering the effects of species interactions across trophic levels and providing an influx of resources from decaying biomass. Second, we investigate how the magnitude of MMEs, trophic level of the impacted species, overall food web structure and ecosystem type may mediate the resulting ecological response. Third, we compare the understanding gained by our models to existing observational data on MMEs. Our synthesis, offers an empirical path forward for understanding MMEs through experimentation and improved observational data collection. While complex, resolving the consequences of MMEs should be a high research priority due to their role in determining how ecological systems respond to environmental change driven by rare events.