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Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period

The first animals appear during the late Ediacaran (572 to 541 Ma); an initial diversity increase was followed reduction in diversity, often interpreted as catastrophic mass extinction. We investigate Ediacaran ecosystem structure changes over this time period using the “Elements of Metacommunity St...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Eden, Rebecca, Manica, Andrea, Mitchell, Emily G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9113585/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35580078
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001289
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author Eden, Rebecca
Manica, Andrea
Mitchell, Emily G.
author_facet Eden, Rebecca
Manica, Andrea
Mitchell, Emily G.
author_sort Eden, Rebecca
collection PubMed
description The first animals appear during the late Ediacaran (572 to 541 Ma); an initial diversity increase was followed reduction in diversity, often interpreted as catastrophic mass extinction. We investigate Ediacaran ecosystem structure changes over this time period using the “Elements of Metacommunity Structure” framework to assess whether this diversity reduction in the Nama was likely caused by an external mass extinction, or internal metacommunity restructuring. The oldest metacommunity was characterised by taxa with wide environmental tolerances, and limited specialisation or intertaxa associations. Structuring increased in the second oldest metacommunity, with groups of taxa sharing synchronous responses to environmental gradients, aggregating into distinct communities. This pattern strengthened in the youngest metacommunity, with communities showing strong environmental segregation and depth structure. Thus, metacommunity structure increased in complexity, with increased specialisation and resulting in competitive exclusion, not a catastrophic environmental disaster, leading to diversity loss in the terminal Ediacaran. These results reveal that the complex eco-evolutionary dynamics associated with Cambrian diversification were established in the Ediacaran.
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spelling pubmed-91135852022-05-18 Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period Eden, Rebecca Manica, Andrea Mitchell, Emily G. PLoS Biol Research Article The first animals appear during the late Ediacaran (572 to 541 Ma); an initial diversity increase was followed reduction in diversity, often interpreted as catastrophic mass extinction. We investigate Ediacaran ecosystem structure changes over this time period using the “Elements of Metacommunity Structure” framework to assess whether this diversity reduction in the Nama was likely caused by an external mass extinction, or internal metacommunity restructuring. The oldest metacommunity was characterised by taxa with wide environmental tolerances, and limited specialisation or intertaxa associations. Structuring increased in the second oldest metacommunity, with groups of taxa sharing synchronous responses to environmental gradients, aggregating into distinct communities. This pattern strengthened in the youngest metacommunity, with communities showing strong environmental segregation and depth structure. Thus, metacommunity structure increased in complexity, with increased specialisation and resulting in competitive exclusion, not a catastrophic environmental disaster, leading to diversity loss in the terminal Ediacaran. These results reveal that the complex eco-evolutionary dynamics associated with Cambrian diversification were established in the Ediacaran. Public Library of Science 2022-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9113585/ /pubmed/35580078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001289 Text en © 2022 Eden et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Eden, Rebecca
Manica, Andrea
Mitchell, Emily G.
Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period
title Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period
title_full Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period
title_fullStr Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period
title_full_unstemmed Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period
title_short Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period
title_sort metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the ediacaran period
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9113585/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35580078
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001289
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