Skip to main content
The University of British Columbia
UBC - A Place of Mind
The University of British Columbia
Faculty of Science Department of Zoology

Main navigation

  • About
    • Department History
    • News
    • Departmental Announcements
    • In Memoriam
    • Contacts and Information
    • Jobs
    • Buildings
    • Cycling
    • Parking
    • Transit
    • Walking
  • People
    • Faculty - Research
    • Faculty - Educational leadership
    • Lecturers
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • Postdoctoral Fellows
    • Associate Members
    • Adjunct Members
    • Affiliate Members
    • Research Associates
    • Research Lab staff
    • Emeriti
    • Alumni
    • Awards
  • Research
    • Facilities
    • Affiliated Research Centres
    • Graduate Theses
  • Undergraduate Program
    • Undergraduate Research Opportunities
    • Biology Program
    • UBC Sciences – Biology
  • Graduate Program
    • Current Students
    • Prospective Students
    • Funding
    • Apply to TA
    • Courses & Modules
    • Wellness Resources
    • Student Handbook & Forms
    • Zoology Graduate Student Association
    • Contact
  • Events
    • Weekly Seminars
    • Special Seminars and Events
    • CELL seminars
    • Discussion Groups
    • Calendar
    • Recorded Seminars
    • Event Archive
  • Resources
    • Workday
    • COVID-19 Safety
    • Zoology Webmail (log in)
    • Password Change (log in)
    • BRC-Zoology Room and Vehicle Bookings (log in)
    • North and East wing Biosci Room Bookings
    • Computing (ZCU)
    • Aquatics (private)
    • Finance
    • HR: Human Resources
    • Safety
    • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Resources
    • Harassment and Discrimination complaints: steps and resources
    • Zoology Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (private)
    • Major Zoology Committees (private)
    • Departmental Meeting Notes (private)
    • Zoology Policies (private)
    • Peer Review of Teaching (private)
    • Shipping & Receiving
    • Building access: keys and cards
    • Zoology Logo
    • Edit My Profile (private)
  • Log In

Breadcrumb

Home
»
About
»
News

Main Menu: Secondary

  • Department History
    • About the "Huts"
  • News
  • Departmental Announcements
    • Women in Science: Dr. Diane Srivastava
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
  • In Memoriam
  • Contacts and Information
  • Jobs
    • Past jobs
  • Buildings
  • Cycling
  • Parking
  • Transit
  • Walking

New publication: Laura Melissa Guzmán et al. Ecology

March 20, 2022

Laura Melissa Guzman, Patrick L. Thompson, Duarte S. Viana, Bram Vanschoenwinkel, Zsófia Horváth, Robert Ptacnik, Alienor Jeliazkov, Stéphanie Gascón, Pieter Lemmens, Maria Anton-Pardo, Silke Langenheder, Luc De Meester, Jonathan M. Chase. 2022. Accounting for temporal change in multiple biodiversity patterns improves the inference of metacommunity processes. Ecology


Abstract
In metacommunity ecology, a major focus has been on combining observational and analytical approaches to identify the role of critical assembly processes, such as dispersal limitation and environmental filtering, this work has largely ignored temporal community dynamics. Here, we develop a ‘virtual ecologist’ approach to evaluate assembly processes by simulating metacommunities varying in three main processes: density-independent responses to abiotic conditions, density-dependent biotic interactions, and dispersal. We then calculate a number of commonly used summary statistics of community structure in space and time, and use random forests to evaluate their utility for inferring the strength of these three processes. We found that: (i) both spatial and temporal data are necessary to disentangle metacommunity processes based on the summary statistics we test, and including statistics that are measured through time increases the explanatory power of the random forests by up to 59% when compared to cases where only spatial variation is considered; (ii) the three studied processes can be distinguished with different descriptors; (iii) each summary statistic is differently sensitive to temporal and spatial sampling effort. Including repeated observations of metacommunities over time was essential for inferring the metacommunity processes, particularly dispersal. Some of the most useful statistics include the coefficient of variation of species abundances through time and metrics that incorporate variation in the relative abundances (evenness) of species. We conclude that a combination of methods and summary statistics is probably necessary to understand the processes that underlie metacommunity assembly through space and time, but recognize that these results will be modified when other processes or summary statistics are used.

Department of Zoology
4200 - 6270 University Blvd.
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4
604 822 2131
E-mail info@zoology.ubc.ca
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • UBC Copyright |
  • Accessibility