Aug. 13, 2013 — Communities in nature are likely to be a lot more sensitive to change than previously thought, according to a new study at Rice University.
The study, which appears this week in Nature Communications, shows that scientists concerned about human influence on the biosphere need to take a deeper look at how altering the dynamics of a population -- for example, by removing large members of a species through overfishing -- can have measurable consequences, said Rice ecologist Volker Rudolf.
"Natural communities are increasingly altered through human impact, and ecologists have long strived to determine how these changes influence communities," Rudolf said. He noted the disappearance of a species is the most extreme but not the only cause of biodiversity loss.
"That's the last thing that happens after you mess up the entire ecosystem for a long period of time," he said. By then, changes forced upon the structure of a population -- such as the ratio of young to old in a species -- have already been felt up and down the food chain.
Rudolf suspected species play various roles and their effects on the environment change as they progress through their lifecycles, to the degree that altering these life "stages" within a species could have a significant impact. He and Rice graduate student Nick Rasmussen made a considerable effort to prove it.
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