Tsai Cheng-Han, Connolly Sean R
Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Ecol Lett. 2025 Apr;28(4):e70001. doi: 10.1111/ele.70001.
The stabilising effect of biodiversity on aggregate community properties is well-established experimentally, but its importance in naturally assembled communities at larger scales requires considering its covariation with other biotic and abiotic factors. Here, we examine the diversity-stability relationship in a 27-year coral reef fish time series at 39 reefs spanning 10° latitude on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. We find that an apparent relationship between species richness and synchrony of population fluctuations is driven by these two variables' covariation with proximity to coastal influences. Additionally, coral cover volatility destabilises fish assemblages by increasing average population variability but not synchrony, an effect mediated by changes in the intensity of density regulation in the fish community. Our findings indicate that these two environmental factors, both of which are strongly influenced by anthropogenic activity, impact community stability more than diversity does, but by distinct pathways reflecting different underlying community-dynamic processes.
生物多样性对群落总体属性的稳定作用已在实验中得到充分证实，但其在更大尺度上自然组装群落中的重要性需要考虑其与其他生物和非生物因素的协变关系。在此，我们研究了澳大利亚大堡礁上跨越10个纬度的39个珊瑚礁长达27年的珊瑚礁鱼类时间序列中的多样性-稳定性关系。我们发现，物种丰富度与种群波动同步性之间的明显关系是由这两个变量与靠近海岸影响的协变所驱动的。此外，珊瑚覆盖率波动通过增加平均种群变异性而非同步性使鱼类群落不稳定，这种影响是由鱼类群落中密度调节强度的变化介导的。我们的研究结果表明，这两个环境因素都受到人为活动的强烈影响，对群落稳定性的影响超过了多样性，但通过反映不同潜在群落动态过程的不同途径。
