OOS 36: The Consequences of Stochasticity for Communities: Linking Theory and Experiments

Session Organizer(s)

• Christopher Catano

  Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University
  East Lansing, MI, USA

Moderator(s)

• Lars Brudvig

  Plant Biology
  Michigan State University

Volunteer(s)

• Molly Reichenborn

  New Mexico State University

Predicting the consequences of environmental change, species invasions, and restoration actions for biodiversity requires understanding the processes that assemble communities. Stochasticity – chance environmental and demographic events – is a fundamental processes of community assembly, yet we know relatively little about the role it plays in natural communities structured by resource gradients, density-dependent species interactions, or variable dispersal. Our understanding of stochasticity in community ecology remains limited because its role is typically inferred from observed patterns rather than studied directly. Tests of specific stochastic drivers and their importance for community assembly outcomes are exceptionally rare. This session features experiments that manipulate key drivers of stochasticity to understand how environmental and demographic stochasticity influences community dynamics and evolution. The talks in this session offer broad insights into how processes occurring at different scales can alter the role of stochasticity; for example, by increasing dispersal limitation, reducing community size, and altering the functional diversity of species pools. These talks will investigate the consequences of stochasticity for a diverse range of community outcomes, including extinction rates, coexistence, species and trait sorting along environmental gradients, pollination, and adaptation. By explicitly linking recent theoretical advances with experiments, this session provides general insights into how stochastic processes mediate community assembly, consequences for the stability of biological diversity and ecosystem functions, and guidance for improving successful restoration outcomes.

Presentations:

• ON DEMAND

  Demographic fates of individuals and their upscaling to populations
  

  Presenting Author: Rachel Germain – Zoology, University of British Columbia
• ON DEMAND

  Species pool influences on the stochasticity of local community assembly: An experimental test with nectar microbes
  

  Presenting Author: Leslie E. Decker – Biology, Stanford University
• ON DEMAND

  Species-pool functional diversity as a driver of community assembly
  

  Presenting Author: Jonathan A. Myers – Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis
• ON DEMAND

  The combined effects of demographic and environmental stochasticity yield predictable transient and long-term extinction effects in grasslands
  

  Presenting Author: Lauren Shoemaker – Department of Botany, University of Wyoming
• ON DEMAND

  The consequences of demographic stochasticity for communities: Linking theory and experiments
  

  Presenting Author: Benjamin Gilbert – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
• ON DEMAND

  Variation in grassland restoration outcomes: Species pools and dispersal mediate local stochasticity
  

  Presenting Author: Christopher P. Catano – Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University