Communities contain closely related species during ecosystem disturbance

  1. Matthew R. Helmus1,2,*,
  2. Wendel (Bill) Keller3,
  3. Michael J. Paterson4,
  4. Norman D. Yan5,
  5. Charles H. Cannon1,
  6. James A. Rusak6,†

Article first published online: 8 DEC 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01411.x

Issue

Ecology Letters

Ecology Letters

Volume 13, Issue 2, pages 162–174, February 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Helmus, M. R., Keller, W., Paterson, M. J., Yan, N. D., Cannon, C. H. and Rusak, J. A. (2010), Communities contain closely related species during ecosystem disturbance. Ecology Letters, 13: 162–174. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01411.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China

  2. 2

    Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA

  3. 3

    Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6 Canada

  4. 4

    Fisheries and Oceans R3T 2N6 Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

  5. 5

    Biology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

  6. 6

    Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Boulder Junction, WI 54512, USA

  1. †

    Present address: Dorset Environmental Science Centre, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Dorset, ON, Canada

* *E-mails: mrhelmus@wisc.edu, mrhelmus@gmail.com

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 14 JAN 2010
  2. Article first published online: 8 DEC 2009
  3. Editor, Helmut Hillebrand Manuscript received 3 September 2009 First decision made 8 October 2009 Manuscript accepted 13 October 2009

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (401K)

Keywords:

  • Biodiversity;
  • disturbance ecology;
  • environmental filtering;
  • extinction prediction;
  • pH;
  • phylogenetic community structure;
  • phylogenetic comparative methods;
  • phylogenetic signal;
  • whole-lake experiment;
  • zooplankton

Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 162–174

Abstract

Predicting community and species responses to disturbance is complicated by incomplete knowledge about species traits. A phylogenetic framework should partially solve this problem, as trait similarity is generally correlated with species relatedness, closely related species should have similar sensitivities to disturbance. Disturbance should thus result in community assemblages of closely related species. We tested this hypothesis with 18 disturbed and 16 reference whole-lake, long-term zooplankton data sets. Regardless of disturbance type, communities generally contained more closely related species when disturbed. This effect was independent of species richness, evenness, and abundance. Communities already under stress (i.e., those in acidic lakes) changed most when disturbed. Species sensitivities to specific disturbances were phylogenetically conserved, were independent of body size, and could be predicted by the sensitivities of close relatives within the same community. Phylogenetic relatedness can effectively act as a proxy for missing trait information when predicting community and species responses to disturbance.

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (401K)