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Testing for Compensation in a Multi-species Community

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Abstract

The dynamics of a community are said to be compensatory if aggregate biomass is less variable over time than the biomass of the individual components of the system. In broad terms, the presence of compensation reflects interactions between components that tend to stabilize the overall community. A common quantitative measure used to detect compensation is the ratio of the temporal variance of total biomass to the sum of the biomass variances of the components, with a ratio less than 1 indicative of compensation. The purpose of this note is to describe a test for compensation when the variance ratio is estimated from biomass time series data. The test involves a bootstrap procedure that accounts for serial correlation in biomass. Failure to account for positive serial correlation can lead to spurious detection of compensation. The test is illustrated using biomass data for fish stocks on Georges Bank.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The very helpful comments of Kathryn Cottingham and two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged with gratitude. John Steele kindly supplied the biomass data for Georges Bank. This research was supported by NSF Grant DEB-0515639.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 02543, USA

    Andrew R. Solow

  2. Pêches et Océans Canada, Institut Maurice-Lamontagne, 850 route de la Mer, G5H 3Z4, Mont-Joli, Quebec, Canada

    Daniel E. Duplisea

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  1. Andrew R. Solow
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  2. Daniel E. Duplisea
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Correspondence to Andrew R. Solow.

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Solow, A.R., Duplisea, D.E. Testing for Compensation in a Multi-species Community. Ecosystems 10, 1034–1038 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-007-9076-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-007-9076-1

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