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Avoiding artifacts when varying the number of species in ecological models
Author(s) -
Moisset de Espanés Pablo,
RamosJiliberto Rodrigo,
Soto José A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.13775
Subject(s) - biodiversity , variety (cybernetics) , trait , ecosystem , ecology , artifact (error) , adaptation (eye) , ecological network , ecological systems theory , environmental resource management , property (philosophy) , order (exchange) , ecosystem services , computer science , biology , environmental science , artificial intelligence , economics , philosophy , epistemology , finance , neuroscience , programming language
Ecological theory recognizes the importance of the variety of species for maintaining the functioning of ecosystems and their derived services. We assert that when studying the effects of shifts in biodiversity levels using mathematical models, their dynamics must be sensitive to the variety of species traits but not to raw species numbers, a property that we call order–invariance. We present a testing procedure for verifying order–invariance of ecological network models —with or without trait adaptation— expressed as ODEs. Furthermore, we applied our test to several influential models used for evaluating biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning. In most of the surveyed studies the equations failed our test. This raises doubts about the validity of previous results and calls for revisiting the theory derived from these studies. Our results foster the creation of artifact–free models, a necessary step towards building a more robust theory of biodiversity–driven ecosystem functioning.