Abstract
Gardner and Ashby1 and May2 challenged the tenet that ecological stability increases with species diversity. But May concluded that if species are arranged in 'blocks', stability restrictions are relaxed allowing for greater diversity than in the absence of blocking. Recent investigations suggest that communities may contain tightly coupled subunits whose numbers may increase with diversity3–6. McNaughton7 suggested that species may be arranged in resource compartments and that, within these compartments, species interaction strength would decline as diversity increased. Pimm8 found little evidence of food-web compartmentation within habitats and few examples between habitats but cautioned that binary data sets based on connectedness were not optimal for detecting compartmentation. We provide evidence of resource compartmentation based on structural characteristics of a belowground connectedness web9 and on biomass estimates and nitrogen flux rates from its energy flux-web description. Using other food webs, we demonstrate that the relationship between structure and diversity is similar for different resource compartments, suggesting that these compartments behave as entities.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gardner, M. R. & Ashby, W. R. Nature 228, 274 (1970).
May, R. M. Nature 238, 413–414 (1972).
Root, R. B. Ecol. Monogr. 43, 95–124 (1973).
Paine, R. T. J. anim. Ecol. 49, 667–686 (1980).
Yodzis, P. Nature 284, 544–545 (1980).
Jordano, P. Am. Nat. 129, 657–677 (1987).
McNaughton, S. J. Nature 274, 251–253 (1978).
Pimm, S. L. Food Webs (Chapman and Hall, London, 1982).
Hunt, H. W. et al. Biol. Fert. Soil 3, 57–68 (1987).
Briand, F. Ecology 64, 253–263 (1983).
Yodzis, P. Am. Nat. 120, 551–570 (1982).
Cohen, J. E. Food Webs and Niche Space (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1978).
Odum, E. P. Jap. J. Ecol. 12, 108–118 (1962).
Marples, T. G. Ecology 47, 270–277 (1966).
Moore, J. C. et al. Ann. Rev. Ent. 419–439 (1988).
Schoener, T. W. Science 185, 27–39 (1974).
Elliott, E. T. et al. Pl. Soil 79, 149–155 (1984).
Moore, J. C. Thesis, Colorado State University (1986).
Hendrix, P. F. et al. Bioscience 36, 374–380 (1986).
Ingham, E. R. et al. J. appl. Ecol. 23, 597–614 (1986).
Lane, P. Ecology 67, 223–239 (1986).
Kitching, R. L. Oikos 48, 280–288 (1987).
Holland, E. A. & Coleman, D. C. Ecology 68, 425–433 (1987).
Hunt, H. W. et al. Pl. Soil (submitted, 1988).
Auerbach, M. J. Ecological Communities, Conceptual Issues and the Evidence (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984).
Rejmanek, M. & Stary, P. Nature 280, 311–313 (1979).
Hutchinson, G. E. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 22, 415–427 (1958).
Hutchinson, G. E. Am. Nat. 93, 145–159 (1959).
May, R. M. Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moore, J., William Hunt, H. Resource compartmentation and the stability of real ecosystems. Nature 333, 261–263 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/333261a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/333261a0
This article is cited by
-
Climate warming restructures food webs and carbon flow in high-latitude ecosystems
Nature Climate Change (2024)
-
How to adequately represent biological processes in modeling multifunctionality of arable soils
Biology and Fertility of Soils (2024)
-
Effects of Plants on Metacommunities and Correlation Networks of Soil Microbial Groups in an Ecologically Restored Wetland
Microbial Ecology (2021)
-
Resource risk and stability in the zooarchaeological record: the case of Pueblo fishing in the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2020)
-
Food web rewiring in a changing world
Nature Ecology & Evolution (2019)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.