Exploring the Frequency and Distribution of Ecological Non-monotonicity in Associations among Ecosystem Constituents.

ABSTRACT: Complex links between biotic and abiotic constituents are fundamental for the functioning of ecosystems. Although non-monotonic interactions and associations are known to increase the stability, diversity, and productivity of ecosystems, they are frequently ignored by community-level standard statistical approaches. Using the copula-based dependence measure qad, capable of quantifying the directed and asymmetric dependence between variables for all forms of (functional) relationships, we determined the proportion of non-monotonic associations between different constituents of an ecosystem (plants, bacteria, fungi, and environmental parameters). Here, we show that up to 59% of all statistically significant associations are non-monotonic. Further, we show that pairwise associations be

SUBMITTER: Hanusch M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10721710 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature