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Species loss leads to community closure

Lundberg, Per LU ; Ranta, E and Kaitala, V (2000) In Ecology Letters 3(6). p.465-468
Abstract
Global extinction of a species is sadly irreversible. At a local scale, however, extinctions may be followed by re-invasion. We here show that this is not necessarily the case and that an ecological community may close its doors for re-invasion of species lost from it. Previous studies of how communities are assembled have shown that there may be rules for that process and that limitations are set to the order by which species are introduced and put together. Instead of focusing on the assembly process we randomly generated simple competitive model communities that were stable and allowed for two to 10 coexisting species. When a randomly selected single species was removed from the community, the cascading species loss was recorded and... (More)
Global extinction of a species is sadly irreversible. At a local scale, however, extinctions may be followed by re-invasion. We here show that this is not necessarily the case and that an ecological community may close its doors for re-invasion of species lost from it. Previous studies of how communities are assembled have shown that there may be rules for that process and that limitations are set to the order by which species are introduced and put together. Instead of focusing on the assembly process we randomly generated simple competitive model communities that were stable and allowed for two to 10 coexisting species. When a randomly selected single species was removed from the community, the cascading species loss was recorded and frequently the resulting community was more than halved. Cascading extinctions have previously been recorded, but we here show that the relative magnitude of the cascade is dependent on community size land not only trophic structure) and that the reintroduction of the original species lost often is impossible. Hence, species loss does not simply leave a void potentially refilled, bur: permanently alters the entire community structure and consequently the adaptive landscape for potential re-invaders. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Ecology Letters
volume
3
issue
6
pages
465 - 468
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:0033746719
ISSN
1461-023X
DOI
10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00170.x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
572827d8-4a7b-46e4-a017-e0e8e9db541b (old id 147560)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:34:17
date last changed
2022-02-19 00:16:45
@article{572827d8-4a7b-46e4-a017-e0e8e9db541b,
  abstract     = {{Global extinction of a species is sadly irreversible. At a local scale, however, extinctions may be followed by re-invasion. We here show that this is not necessarily the case and that an ecological community may close its doors for re-invasion of species lost from it. Previous studies of how communities are assembled have shown that there may be rules for that process and that limitations are set to the order by which species are introduced and put together. Instead of focusing on the assembly process we randomly generated simple competitive model communities that were stable and allowed for two to 10 coexisting species. When a randomly selected single species was removed from the community, the cascading species loss was recorded and frequently the resulting community was more than halved. Cascading extinctions have previously been recorded, but we here show that the relative magnitude of the cascade is dependent on community size land not only trophic structure) and that the reintroduction of the original species lost often is impossible. Hence, species loss does not simply leave a void potentially refilled, bur: permanently alters the entire community structure and consequently the adaptive landscape for potential re-invaders.}},
  author       = {{Lundberg, Per and Ranta, E and Kaitala, V}},
  issn         = {{1461-023X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{465--468}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Ecology Letters}},
  title        = {{Species loss leads to community closure}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00170.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00170.x}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2000}},
}