Speaker
Description
Whether static, e.g. habitat destruction, or dynamic, e.g. environmental fluctuations, disturbance of a landscape has typically been expected to degrade its resident ecosystems. However, recent modelling studies \cite{Zhang2023, Zhang2025} have predicted that community biodiversity can oscillate, both rising and falling, as disturbance severity increases. Similar patterns have been found by re-examination of empirical data collected in disturbed ecosystems. While the overall trend is for biodiversity to decline with disturbance severity, these responses could mislead ecosystem managers as to the impact of ongoing climate change and the effectiveness of conservation interventions.
In this talk, I will outline the general mechanism that gives rise to these responses; specifically, the effect of a tradeoff in growth rate and competitive ability. I will then explore why identical results are obtained for apparently different types of disturbance.
Bibliography
@article{Zhang2023, author = {Zhang, Helin and Bearup, Daniel and Barabás, György and Fagan, William F. and Nijs, Ivan and Chen, Dongdong and Liao, Jinbao}, title = {Complex nonmonotonic responses of biodiversity to habitat destruction}, journal = {Ecology}, volume = {104}, number = {12}, pages = {e4177}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4177}, year = {2023} }
@article{Zhang2025, author = {Zhang, Zeyu and Chase, Jonathan M. and Bearup, Daniel and Liao, Jinbao}, title = {Complex interactive responses of biodiversity to multiple environmental drivers}, journal = {Ecology}, volume = {106}, number = {1}, pages = {e4484}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4484}, year = {2025} }
