Michel Loreau

..Recent community evolution models are a promising step in that direction...

..Analyses of deep-sea ecosystems challenge this generalisation and suggest that positive species interactions might be more widespread than previously believed...

..Comparing the observed synchrony of species per capita population growth rates with that predicted by the neutral model potentially provides a simple test of deterministic asynchrony in a community...

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..Finally, we apply our theory to reveal the effects of habitat destruction on network complexity and metacommunity diversity...

..The adaptive benefit derived from niche construction also strongly affects the realized niche of a niche-constructing species...

..Our work emphasizes the potential of trait-based approaches for transforming biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research into a more predictive science...

..The meta-ecosystem perspective provides a powerful theoretical framework to address novel questions in spatial ecosystem ecology...

..It more generally emphasizes the importance of meta-ecosystem theory for predicting species persistence and distribution in managed ecosystems...

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..They also suggest that detrital chains play an important role in determining plant nutrient limitation in many ecosystems...

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..We show that existing hypotheses from specific empirical systems do not occur under all conditions, which further exacerbates the need to consider a broad suite of mechanisms when investigating trophic cascades...

..Our analysis revealed that integrating ecosystem and spatial dynamics can lead to various indirect interactions that contribute significantly to community organization...

..The direct benefit accruing to plants, however, plays a crucial role in the evolutionary advantage of niche construction...

..Predictions from our models support the subsidy hypothesis and highlight the need to consider ecosystems as open to allochthonous flows...

..In this case, adaptation in response to climate change and human pressures could give the final push to the desertification of arid ecosystems...

..Nontrophic interactions alter the shape of the relationship between biodiversity and biomass and can profoundly influence ecosystem processes...

..This emphasizes the importance of including explicit nutrient dynamics in studies of plant-herbivore coevolution...

..Despite the complexity generated by trophic interactions, biodiversity should still act as biological insurance for ecosystem processes, except when mean trophic interaction strength increases strongly with diversity...

..This stresses the need for experimental data on phenotypic traits, their costs and their influence on the interactions between organisms and the rest of the community...

..Our analysis demonstrates that food-web structure can profoundly influence ecosystem properties...

..Our results provide a niche-based alternative to the recent neutral-metacommunity model and have important implications for conservation biology and landscape management...

..We propose an operational measure of light-use complementarity using empirical field data on light absorption to test the presence of complementarity in natural plant communities...

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..5. Density-dependent dispersal suggests that regional processes depend on local community dynamics. We discuss the potential consequences of density-dependent dispersal on metacommunity dynamics and stability...

..Knowledge of spatial processes across ecosystems is critical to predict the effects of landscape changes on both biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and services...

..Our analysis emphasizes the need for integration of population, community, and ecosystem perspectives in ecology and the critical consequences of assuming closed versus open systems...

..Variations of two key parameters (width of consumption niche and competition intensity) allow very different food-web structures and functionings to emerge, which are similar to those observed in some of the best-documented food webs...

..We expect our predictions to be useful in explaining the community structure of decomposers and their interactions with other consumers of inorganic resources, particularly primary producers...

..We discuss how community structure constrains assembly rules and yields cascades of extinctions in food webs...

..Thus, the functional diversity of pollination networks may be critical to ecosystem sustainability...

..Furthermore, dispersal has its own scales. Thorough empirical tests of neutral models will require both tests of mechanisms and pattern-producing ability, and will involve coupling theoretical models and experiments...

..Our model emphasizes the importance of considering the influence of body size on species interactions in attempting to explain large-scale patterns related to body size...

..Moreover, for arid ecosystems where local facilitation is a driving process, vegetation patchiness indicates proximity to a transition point, but does not allow distinguishing between continuous and discontinuous transitions...

..Our results suggest that experiments to date have, if anything, underestimated the impacts of species extinction on the productivity of ecosystems...

..Understanding how biodiversity affects functioning of complex ecosystems will benefit from integrating theory and experiments with simulations and network-based approaches...