Modelling species interactions in diverse communities traditionally requires a prohibitively large number of species-interaction coefficients, especially when considering environmental dependence of parameters. We implemented Bayesian variable selection via sparsity-inducing priors on non-linear species abundance models to determine which species interactions should be retained and which can be represented as an average heterospecific interaction term, reducing the number of model parameters. We evaluated model performance using simulated communities, computing out-of-sample predictive accuracy and parameter recovery across different input sample sizes. We applied our method to a diverse empirical community, allowing us to disentangle the direct role of environmental gradients on species intrinsic growth rates from indirect effects via competitive interactions. We also identified a few neighbouring species from the diverse community that had non-generic interactions with our focal species. This sparse modelling approach facilitates exploration of species interactions in diverse communities while maintaining a manageable number of parameters. ; Funding Agencies|NSF EPSCoRNational Science Foundation (NSF)NSF - Office of the Director (OD) [EPS-2019528]; Australian Research CouncilAustralian Research Council [DP140100574]; VetenskapsradetSwedish Research Council [2017-05245]; European Social FundEuropean Social Fund (ESF) [RYC-2017-23666]; Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadSpanish Government; Deutsches Zentrum fur integrative Biodiversitatsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig [FZT 118, 02548816]
Temporal stability of ecosystem functioning increases the predictability and reliability of ecosystem services, and understanding the drivers of stability across spatial scales is important for land management and policy decisions. We used species-level abundance data from 62 plant communities across five continents to assess mechanisms of temporal stability across spatial scales. We assessed how asynchrony (i.e. different units responding dissimilarly through time) of species and local communities stabilised metacommunity ecosystem function. Asynchrony of species increased stability of local communities, and asynchrony among local communities enhanced metacommunity stability by a wide range of magnitudes (1–315%); this range was positively correlated with the size of the metacommunity. Additionally, asynchronous responses among local communities were linked with species' populations fluctuating asynchronously across space, perhaps stemming from physical and/or competitive differences among local communities. Accordingly, we suggest spatial heterogeneity should be a major focus for maintaining the stability of ecosystem services at larger spatial scales. ; Fil: Wilcox, Kevin R. Oklahoma State University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Tredennick, Andrew T. State University of Utah; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Koerner, Sally E. University of North Carolina; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Grman, Emily. Eastern Michigan University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Hallett, Lauren M. University of Oregon; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Avolio, Meghan L. University Johns Hopkins; Estados Unidos ; Fil: La Pierre, Kimberly J. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Houseman, Gregory R. Wichita State University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Forest, Isbell. University of Minnesota; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Johnson, David Samuel. Virginia Institute of Marine Science; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Alatalo, Juha M. Qatar University; Qatar ; Fil: Baldwin, Andrew H. University of Maryland; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Bork, Edward W. University of Alberta; Canadá ; Fil: Boughton, Elizabeth H. MacArthur Agroecology Research Center; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Bowman, William D. University of Colorado; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Britton, Andrea J. James Hutton Institute; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Cahill, James F. University of Alberta; Canadá ; Fil: Collins, Scott L. University of New Mexico; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Du, Guozhen. Lanzhou University; China ; Fil: Eskelinen, Anu. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research; Alemania. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Alemania. University of Oulu; Finlandia ; Fil: Gough, Laura. Towson University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Jentsch, Anke. University of Bayreuth; Alemania ; Fil: Kern, Christel. United States Forest Service; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Klanderud, Kari. Norwegian University of Life Sciences; Noruega ; Fil: Knapp, Alan K. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Kreyling, Juergen. Greifswald University; Alemania ; Fil: Luo, Yiqi. Oklahoma State University; Estados Unidos. Northern Arizona University; Estados Unidos. Tsinghua University; China ; Fil: McLaren, James E. University of Texas at El Paso; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Megonigal, Patrick. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Onipchenko, Vladimir. Moscow State Lomonosov University; Rusia ; Fil: Prevéy, Janet. Pacific Northwest Research Station; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Price, Jodi N. Charles Sturt University; Australia ; Fil: Robinson, Clare H. University of Manchester; Reino Unido ; Fil: Sala, Osvaldo Esteban. Arizona State University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina ; Fil: Smith, Melinda D. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A. Leiden University; Países Bajos ; Fil: Souza, Lara. Oklahoma State University; Estados Unidos ; Fil: Tilman, David. University of Minnesota; Estados Unidos ; Fil: White, Shannon R. Government of Alberta; Canadá ; Fil: Xu, Zhuwen. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de China ; Fil: Yahdjian, María Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina ; Fil: Yu, Qiang. Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; China ; Fil: Zhang, Pengfei. Lanzhou University; China ; Fil: Zhang, Yunhai. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de China. University Aarhus; Dinamarca
