Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, 6100 Main Street-MS 170, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
Nat Commun. 2013;4:2318. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3318.
Linking the structure of communities to ecosystem functioning has been a perennial challenge in ecology. Studies on ecosystem function are traditionally focused on changes in species composition. However, this species-centric approach neglects the often dramatic changes in the ecology of organisms during their development, thereby limiting our ability to link the structure of populations and communities to the functioning of natural ecosystems. Here we experimentally demonstrate that the impact of organisms on community structure and ecosystem processes often differ more among developmental stages within a species than between species, contrary to current assumptions. Importantly, we show that functional differences between species vary depending on the specific demographic structure of predators. One important implication is that changes in the demography of populations can strongly alter the functional composition of communities and change ecosystem processes long before any species are extirpated from communities.
将群落结构与生态系统功能联系起来一直是生态学中的一个长期挑战。传统上，对生态系统功能的研究侧重于物种组成的变化。然而，这种以物种为中心的方法忽略了生物在其发育过程中生态的经常剧烈变化，从而限制了我们将种群和群落的结构与自然生态系统的功能联系起来的能力。在这里，我们通过实验证明，与当前的假设相反，生物对群落结构和生态系统过程的影响在物种内的发育阶段之间通常比物种之间更为不同。重要的是，我们表明，物种之间的功能差异取决于捕食者的具体人口结构。一个重要的启示是，种群的数量变化可以在任何物种从群落中灭绝之前很久就强烈改变群落的功能组成并改变生态系统过程。
