title: The contribution of intra- and interspecific tolerance variability to biodiversity changes along toxicity gradients.
abstract: The worldwide distribution of toxicants is an important yet understudied driver of biodiversity, and the mechanisms relating toxicity to diversity have not been adequately explored. Here, we present a community model integrating demography, dispersal and toxicant-induced effects on reproduction driven by intraspecific and interspecific variability in toxicity tolerance. We compare model predictions to 458 species abundance distributions (SADs) observed along concentration gradients of toxicants to show that the best predictions occur when intraspecific variability is five and ten times higher than interspecific variability. At high concentrations, lower settings of intraspecific variability resulted in predictions of community extinction that were not supported by the observed SADs. Subtle but significant species losses at low concentrations were predicted only when intraspecific variability dominated over interspecific variability. Our results propose intraspecific variability as a key driver for biodiversity sustenance in ecosystems challenged by environmental change.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Applied Ecology, Ghent University, Plateaustraat 22, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; Research Unit of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, University of Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium.
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Laender
authors.forename: Carlos J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Melian
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bindler
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Van den Brink
authors.forename: Michiel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daam
authors.forename: Helene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Roussel
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Juselius
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Verschuren
authors.forename: Colin R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Janssen
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D008954:Models, Biological; D010839:Phytoplankton; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances
keywords: Community ecology; dispersal limitation; metals; model inference; pesticides; species abundance distributions