Jordi Sola
Postdoc Marine Ecologist currently exploring the Red Sea 🐠🪸 Community and Experimental Ecology, Data Modelling, Evidence Synthesis, and anything in between 🌱🐚🪨🌍
- 📢 New in Ecology Letters: heterogeneity ≠ stability. 🌊🪨 3-yr rocky-shore experiment: 4 cascades canceled the classic heterogeneity–stability link. 📄 doi.org/10.1111/ele.70158 With @thefairchild.bsky.social , @MatthewPerkins, @JamesBull & @jngriffy.bsky.social — thanks to @NERC & @SwanseaUniversity.
- 🔬 35 paired pitted vs smooth tiles across an emersion gradient (11 censuses, 3 yrs). Mixed models + pSEM. ✅ Stabilising: • 🛟 refugia → ↑ population stability • 🌱 richness → ↑ asynchrony ❌ Destabilising: • 🐚 ↓ dominant A. modestus • 🐌 ↓ consumer effects ➡️ Net stability ≈ 0
- ⚠️ Adding “complexity” isn’t a free lunch. Stability hinges on: 👑 Dominant species 🦑 Consumer interactions 🌡️ Stress gradient context 🌍 For restoration & eco-engineering: design with these pathways in mind—test, don’t assume. #EcologyLetters #Conservation #EcoEngineering
- 🎉 New paper out! 🪸🌊 Using rocky reefs as a model and a new organising framework, we show heterogeneity effects depend on: 1) how heterogeneity is generated and measured: 2) the traits of responding organisms; and 3) environmental stress @jngriffy.bsky.social @swanseauni.bsky.social 1/7 🧵
- Resolving the context-dependency of local heterogeneity–#diversity relationships across rocky reefs worldwide #EvidenceSynthesis #ProcB royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #OpenAccess
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View full threadFinally, we produced a conceptual model to promote further hypotheses across systems ✔ Which heterogeneity facets (e.g., 3D vs. 2D) drive outcomes ✔ How species’ traits mediate their response ✔ How broader environmental stress amplifies or dampens effects 6/7
- Key takeaways for conservation → Focus on preserving & restoring 3D structures as they offer the most biodiversity benefits → Prioritize interventions in stressful, variable environments where heterogeneity offers refugia. → Tailor actions to the traits and needs of focal species groups. 7/7
- ✅ Small-bodied and mobile species (like microinvertebrates) benefited the most since they can exploit fine-scale structural variation. Heterogeneity had the clearest effects promoting recruitment and reducing grazing. 4/7
- ✅ Effects were strongest in stressful environments (like intertidal zones) and on biogenic substrates (like mussel beds or macroalgae). We also found some interesting latitudinal effects along the way! 5/7
- Using previous work (McCoy & Bell, Stein, Loke et al.) we linked ‘heterogeneity facets’ with ‘heterogeneity metrics’, which allowed to synthesise information across >100 terms used for heterogeneity into six parsimonious ‘facets’. 2/7
- Using this framework, we found that ✅ 3D structures (like rugose reefs, kelp canopies) had the strongest positive effects, mainly by expanding niche space and habitat area. 3/7
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- That's great, thanks! Some cool analysis in there too
- Cool research! Did they happen to mention any papers? :)
