A metabolic view of the diversity-stability relationship.
A theoretical analysis of the "portfolio effect" expressed in metabolic terms indicates that the coefficient of variation of total biomass in the ecosystem is influenced by three factors: metabolic diversity, total population size and organism biomass (body mass). The contribution of these factors to ecosystem stability depends on the power scaling of population size to its temporal variance: the Tilman's z. In natural populations, 1 < z < 2 both from a theoretical and an empirical background, and so a higher metabolic diversity, a larger population size and a bigger body mass are expected to increase ecosystem stability. The maximization of any of these factors will enhance ecosystem stability both at ecological (successional) and evolutionary timescales, which could explain a number of trends observed in ecosystems and in the history of life.
López-Villalta
Julián Simón
JS
Departamento de Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28040 Madrid, Spain. julian.simon@uam.es
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D018533:Biomass; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology; D017753:Ecosystem; D008660:Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011156:Population Density