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Biodiversity change under adaptive community dynamics
Ist Teil von
Global change biology, 2023-07, Vol.29 (13), p.3525-3538
Ort / Verlag
England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Erscheinungsjahr
2023
Quelle
MEDLINE
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Compositional change is a ubiquitous response of ecological communities to environmental drivers of global change, but is often regarded as evidence of declining “biotic integrity” relative to historical baselines. Adaptive compositional change, however, is a foundational idea in evolutionary biology, whereby changes in gene frequencies within species boost population‐level fitness, allowing populations to persist as the environment changes. Here, we present an analogous idea for ecological communities based on core concepts of fitness and selection. Changes in community composition (i.e., frequencies of genetic differences among species) in response to environmental change should normally increase the average fitnessof community members. We refer to compositional changes that improve the functional match, or “fit,” between organisms' traits and their environment as adaptive community dynamics. Environmental change (e.g., land‐use change) commonly reduces the fit between antecedent communities and new environments. Subsequent change in community composition in response to environmental changes, however, should normally increase community‐level fit, as the success of at least some constituent species increases. We argue that adaptive community dynamics are likely to improve or maintain ecosystem function (e.g., by maintaining productivity). Adaptive community responses may simultaneously produce some changes that are considered societally desirable (e.g., increased carbon storage) and others that are undesirable (e.g., declines of certain species), just as evolutionary responses within species may be deemed desirable (e.g., evolutionary rescue of an endangered species) or undesirable (e.g., enhanced virulence of an agricultural pest). When assessing possible management interventions, it is important to distinguish between drivers of environmental change (e.g., undesired climate warming) and adaptive community responses, which may generate some desirable outcomes. Efforts to facilitate, accept, or resist ecological change require separate consideration of drivers and responses, and may highlight the need to reconsider preferences for historical baseline communities over communities that are better adapted to the new conditions.
Compositional change is a ubiquitous response of ecological communities to environmental change, often regarded as evidence of declining “biotic integrity.” However, analogous compositional change in the genetic makeup of populations is often considered adaptive and necessary for long‐term population persistence. We posit that the predominant response of ecological communities to environmental change is, in fact, likely to be similarly adaptive, and we present a framework for studying such adaptive community dynamics. We argue that adaptive change in ecological communities should generally improve ecosystem function, thus highlighting the need to reconsider automatic preferences for historical baseline community states.