@article{eb78bc21b9444f06bd4f6476c8ccbf0b,
title = "Asynchrony drives plant and animal community stability in mediterranean coastal dunes",
abstract = "Substantial evidence now suggests that a positive diversity–stability relationship exists. Yet few studies examine the facets of biodiversity that contribute to this relationship, and empirical research is predominantly conducted on grassland communities under controlled conditions. We investigate the roles of species richness, environmental condition (vegetation cover), asynchrony, and weighted population stability in driving community stability across multiple taxa. We used data from a Long-term Ecological Research project to investigate temporal stability of annual plants, beetles, reptiles, and rodents in Nizzanim Coastal Sand Dune Nature Reserve in Israel. All four taxa had a strong positive relationship between asynchrony and community stability. Only rodents showed a positive richness–stability relationship. Perennial plant cover had a significant relationship with community stability for three taxa, but the direction of the correlation varied. Asynchrony had a stronger relationship with perennial plant cover than it did with richness for both plants and beetles. We suggest that community stability is driven by asynchrony for flora as well as fauna. Stability appears to be determined by species{\textquoteright} interactions and their responses to the environment, and not always by diversity. This has important consequences for understanding the effects of environmental degradation on ecosystem stability and productivity, which have destabilizing consequences beyond biodiversity loss.",
keywords = "Biodiversity, Coastal dunes, Community stability, Covariance effect, Cross-taxa congruence, Diversity–stability relationship, Multi-taxa, Population stability, Species richness, Species synchrony",
author = "Bird, {Tania L.F.} and Pua Bar and Elli Groner and Amos Bouskila",
note = "Funding Information: Funding: This study and the Nizzanim LTER are funded by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, (INPA) and the International Arid Land Consortium (IALC). Funding Information: This study and the Nizzanim LTER are funded by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, (INPA) and the International Arid Land Consortium (IALC).Acknowledgments: Special thanks to Michael Dorman, who provided substantial time and advice on the initial analyses and use of R coding. Great thanks are due to Yael Zilka, Boaz Shacham, Zehava Siegal, Adi Ramot, Meirav Perry, Ittai Renan, Gal Vine, Oz Rittner, Arnon Tsairi, and the numerous team heads and graduate and undergraduate students from Ben Gurion University for their assistance in collecting monitoring data across the years. We thank the entomologists at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History for their help with identifying beetles, in particular Chicatunov and Laibale Friedman. Thanks also to the Shikmim Field Study Center (Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel) for their hospitality during our fieldwork sessions over the years. We also acknowledge contributions from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the International Arid Land Consortium (IALC). Finally, we thank Yehoshua Shkedi, Yariv Malihi, and the Israel Nature & Parks Authority (INPA) rangers for their continuous support and assistance. Funding Information: Acknowledgments: Special thanks to Michael Dorman, who provided substantial time and advice on the initial analyses and use of R coding. Great thanks are due to Yael Zilka, Boaz Shacham, Zehava Siegal, Adi Ramot, Meirav Perry, Ittai Renan, Gal Vine, Oz Rittner, Arnon Tsairi, and the numerous team heads and graduate and undergraduate students from Ben Gurion University for their assistance in collecting monitoring data across the years. We thank the entomologists at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History for their help with identifying beetles, in particular Chicatunov and Laibale Friedman. Thanks also to the Shikmim Field Study Center (Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel) for their hospitality during our fieldwork sessions over the years. We also acknowledge contributions from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the International Arid Land Consortium (IALC). Finally, we thank Yehoshua Shkedi, Yariv Malihi, and the Israel Nature & Parks Authority (INPA) rangers for their continuous support and assistance. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
day = "1",
doi = "10.3390/app11136214",
language = "English",
volume = "11",
journal = "Applied Sciences (Switzerland)",
issn = "2076-3417",
publisher = "MDPI Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute",
number = "13",
}
