Linköping University, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Division of Theoretical Biology, SE-58183, Linköping, Sweden.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources, Skolgatan 6, SE-74242, Öregrund, Sweden.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 31;9(1):11107. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-47541-6.
The ecological importance of common species for many ecosystem processes and functions is unquestionably due to their high abundance. Yet, the importance of rare species is much less understood. Here we take a theoretical approach, exposing dynamical models of ecological networks to small perturbations, to explore the dynamical importance of rare and common species. We find that both species types contribute to the recovery of communities following generic perturbations (i.e. perturbations affecting all species). Yet, when perturbations are selective (i.e. affects only one species), perturbations to rare species have the most pronounced effect on community stability. We show that this is due to the strong indirect effects induced by perturbations to rare species. Because indirect effects typically set in at longer timescales, our results indicate that the importance of rare species may be easily overlooked and thus underrated. Hence, our study provides a potential ecological motive for the management and protection of rare species.
常见物种对许多生态系统过程和功能的生态重要性无疑是由于它们的高丰度。然而，稀有物种的重要性却知之甚少。在这里，我们采用理论方法，使生态网络的动力学模型受到小的扰动，以探索稀有和常见物种的动力学重要性。我们发现，这两种物种类型都有助于在一般扰动（即影响所有物种的扰动）后恢复群落。然而，当扰动具有选择性（即仅影响一个物种）时，对稀有物种的扰动对群落稳定性的影响最为显著。我们表明，这是由于稀有物种的扰动引起的强烈的间接效应。由于间接效应通常在较长的时间尺度上起作用，因此我们的结果表明，稀有物种的重要性可能很容易被忽视，从而被低估。因此，我们的研究为稀有物种的管理和保护提供了一个潜在的生态动机。
