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Quantifying Ecological Stability: From Community to the Lake Ecosystem

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Abstract

We performed a methodological study aimed at extending our previously developed approach to quantify the ecological stability of biotic communities and an entire ecosystem, using Lake Kinneret as a case study. The ecological stability of the biotic communities (phytoplankton and zooplankton) of Lake Kinneret was estimated using two different aggregating schemes. The first scheme used the combined stability index, based on the combined indices of the individual phytoplankton (SI[Comb]P) and zooplankton (SI[Comb]Z) taxonomic groups. The total community stability index was calculated based on the total abundances of these communities. The stability of the entire ecosystem was estimated for two sets of ecosystem state variables, a lake “trophic state” set and a “water quality” set, which provided considerably different estimates of the lake ecosystem stability. Good agreement between the results of this study and qualitative estimates of Lake Kinneret stability validates the suitability of this approach to estimate the stability of different ecological units.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous Reviewers whose valuable comments greatly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript. We used the Kinneret Limnological Laboratory database, which is a part of the Lake Kinneret ecological monitoring program sponsored by the Israel Water Authority. We are very thankful to L. Baumer for her valuable help in preparing and editing this manuscript.

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    1. Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, P.O.B. 447, Migdal, 14950, Israel

      Arkadi Parparov & Gideon Gal

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    1. Arkadi Parparov
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    2. Gideon Gal
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    Correspondence to Arkadi Parparov.

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    Dr. A. Parparov: Conceived of study, analyzed data, contributed new methods, wrote the paper; Dr. G. Gal: Analyzed data, developed new methods, wrote the paper.

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    Parparov, A., Gal, G. Quantifying Ecological Stability: From Community to the Lake Ecosystem. Ecosystems 20, 1015–1028 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0090-z

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