eCite Digital Repository
Detecting spatial regimes in ecosystems
Citation
Sundstrom, SM and Eason, T and Nelson, RJ and Angeler, DG and Barichievy, C and Garmestani, AS and Graham, NAJ and Granholm, D and Gunderson, L and Knutson, M and Nash, KL and Spanbauer, T and Stow, CA and Allen, CR, Detecting spatial regimes in ecosystems, Ecology Letters, 20, (1) pp. 19-32. ISSN 1461-023X (2017) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
© 2016 John Wiley
Abstract
Research on early warning indicators has generally focused on assessing temporal transitions with
limited application of these methods to detecting spatial regimes. Traditional spatial boundary
detection procedures that result in ecoregion maps are typically based on ecological potential (i.e.
potential vegetation), and often fail to account for ongoing changes due to stressors such as land
use change and climate change and their effects on plant and animal communities. We use Fisher
information, an information theory-based method, on both terrestrial and aquatic animal data
(U.S. Breeding Bird Survey and marine zooplankton) to identify ecological boundaries, and compare
our results to traditional early warning indicators, conventional ecoregion maps and multivariate
analyses such as nMDS and cluster analysis. We successfully detected spatial regimes and
transitions in both terrestrial and aquatic systems using Fisher information. Furthermore, Fisher
information provided explicit spatial information about community change that is absent from
other multivariate approaches. Our results suggest that defining spatial regimes based on animal
communities may better reflect ecological reality than do traditional ecoregion maps, especially in
our current era of rapid and unpredictable ecological change.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | Boundary detection, community change, Fisher information, regime shifts, spatial regimes, spatial resilience |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Ecology |
Research Field: | Community Ecology |
Objective Division: | Environment |
Objective Group: | Ecosystem Assessment and Management |
Objective Field: | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales |
UTAS Author: | Nash, KL (Dr Kirsty Nash) |
ID Code: | 113480 |
Year Published: | 2017 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 6 |
Deposited By: | Ecology and Biodiversity |
Deposited On: | 2017-01-04 |
Last Modified: | 2018-04-18 |
Downloads: | 0 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page