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Mechanisms Underpinning Diversity-Stability Relationships in Hard Bottom Assemblages

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Book cover Marine Hard Bottom Communities

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 206))

Abstract

Increasing concern over the consequences of loss of biodiversity has renewed the interest of ecologists on the diversity-stability debate. In the last decade, a number of theoretical and empirical studies have provided insights into the mechanisms regulating diversity-stability relationships. A synthetic theory is emerging where statistical averaging, biological interactions and differential responses of species to environmental fluctuations are recognized as three non-mutually exclusive mechanisms regulating the link between diversity and stability. In this paper, I offer an overview of this theoretical framework and provide an empirical test of its main predictions, using 90 diversity-stability relationships derived from data on rocky shore assemblages in the northwest Mediterranean. These analyses revealed the important role that statistical averaging, negative covariances due to asynchronous temporal dynamics of individual taxa and overyielding played in reducing the variability in total abundance of assemblages.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the University of Pisa, the Census of Marine Life Programme NaGISA and the MARBEF (Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning) Network of Excellence funded in the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme. This is contribution number 8041 of MARBEF. I thank I. Bertocci, F. Bulleri, E. Maggi and L. Tamburello for commenting on an early version of the manuscript.

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  1. Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Pisa, Via A. Volta 6, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi

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  1. Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi
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Correspondence to Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi .

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    Benedetti-Cecchi, L. (2009). Mechanisms Underpinning Diversity-Stability Relationships in Hard Bottom Assemblages. In: Wahl, M. (eds) Marine Hard Bottom Communities. Ecological Studies, vol 206. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/b76710_28

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