N-dimensional hypervolumes to study stability of complex ecosystems.
Although our knowledge on the stabilising role of biodiversity and on how it is affected by perturbations has greatly improved, we still lack a comprehensive view on ecosystem stability that is transversal to different habitats and perturbations. Hence, we propose a framework that takes advantage of the multiplicity of components of an ecosystem and their contribution to stability. Ecosystem components can range from species or functional groups, to different functional traits, or even the cover of different habitats in a landscape mosaic. We make use of n-dimensional hypervolumes to define ecosystem states and assess how much they shift after environmental changes have occurred. We demonstrate the value of this framework with a study case on the effects of environmental change on Alpine ecosystems. Our results highlight the importance of a multidimensional approach when studying ecosystem stability and show that our framework is flexible enough to be applied to different types of ecosystem components, which can have important implications for the study of ecosystem stability and transient dynamics.
Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), Univ. Grenoble Alpes, F-38000, Grenoble, France.|Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), CNRS, F-38000, Grenoble, France.
Ceres
C
Barros
Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), Univ. Grenoble Alpes, F-38000, Grenoble, France.|Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), CNRS, F-38000, Grenoble, France.
Wilfried
W
Thuiller
Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), Univ. Grenoble Alpes, F-38000, Grenoble, France.|Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), CNRS, F-38000, Grenoble, France.
Damien
D
Georges
Laboratoire d'Écologie Théorique, Département de Biologie, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300, Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada.
Isabelle
I
Boulangeat
Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), Univ. Grenoble Alpes, F-38000, Grenoble, France.|Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), CNRS, F-38000, Grenoble, France.
Tamara
T
Münkemüller
D044822:Biodiversity; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D010944:Plants
Climate change; ecosystem stability; land-use changes; n-dimensional hypervolumes; perturbations