Research Topic

Metaecosystems

The metacommunity concept focuses exclusively on the biotic components of ecosystems, yet the properties of ecological communities can only be fully understood by explicitly embedding them into ecosystems, including abiotic constraints and feedbacks. The natural extension of the metacommunity concept is the meta-ecosystem (defined as a set of ecosystems connected by spatial flows of energy, materials and organisms across ecosystem boundaries). In contrast to metacommunities, which only consider connections among systems via the dispersal of organisms, metaecosystems more broadly embrace all kinds of spatial flows among systems.

As a result, the metaecosystem framework has the potential to integrate the perspectives of community, ecosystem, and landscape ecology. Most of my research on metaecosystems has concerned revisiting classical models and concepts of community ecology in the light of metaecosystem dynamics (source-sinks, competition-colonization, paradox of enrichment, keystone species). This research has also resulted in producing review papers and integrative approaches.

Modelling Approaches

  1. Gounand I., Mouquet N., Canard E., Guichard F., Hauzy C., Gravel D. (2014). The Paradox of Enrichment in Metaecosystems. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/678406

  2. Hauzy C., Nadin G., Canard E., Gounand I., Mouquet N., Ebenman B. (2013). Confronting the Paradox of Enrichment to the Metacommunity Perspective. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082969

  3. Mouquet N., Gravel D., Massol F., Calcagno V. (2012). Extending the concept of keystone species to communities and ecosystems. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12014

  4. Calcagno V., Massol F., Mouquet N., Jarne P., David P. (2011). Constraints on food chain length arising from regional metacommunity dynamics. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0112

  5. Gravel D., Mouquet N., Loreau M., Guichard F. (2010). Patch Dynamics, Persistence, and Species Coexistence in Metaecosystems. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/655426

  6. Gravel D., Guichard F., Loreau M., Mouquet N. (2010). Source and sink dynamics in meta-ecosystems. Ecology, doi.org/10.1890/09-0843.1

Integrative Approaches & Reviews

  1. Warren B.H., Ricklefs R.E., Thebaud C., Gravel D., Mouquet N. (2019). How Consideration of Islands Has Inspired Mainstream Ecology: Links Between the Theory of Island Biogeography and Some Other Key Theories. Elsevier eBooks, doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11788-9

  2. Massol F., Altermatt F., Gounand I., Gravel D., Leibold M.A., Mouquet N. (2016). How life-history traits affect ecosystem properties: effects of dispersal in meta-ecosystems. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/oik.03893

  3. Loreau M., Daufresne T., Gonzalez A., Gravel D., Guichard F., Leroux S., Loeuille N., Massol F., Mouquet N. (2012). Unifying sources and sinks in ecology and <scp>E</scp>arth sciences. Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, doi.org/10.1111/brv.12003

  4. Massol F., Gravel D., Mouquet N., Cadotte M.W., Fukami T., Leibold M.A. (2011). Linking community and ecosystem dynamics through spatial ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01588.x

  5. Loreau M., Mouquet N. and Holt R.D. (2005). From metacommunities to meta-ecosystems. In: Metacommunities: Spatial dynamics and ecological communities. Eds M. Holyoak, M.A. Leibold and R.D. Holt. Chicago University Press.

  6. Loreau M., Mouquet N., Holt R.D. (2003). Meta-ecosystems: a theoretical framework for a spatial ecosystem ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00483.x

Other topic pages

Aesthetics iconBiodiversity Aesthetics Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning iconBiodiversity & Ecosystem Functioning Biogeography iconBiogeography, Macroecology & Ecophylogenetics Experimental evolution iconExperimental Evolution Functional biogeography iconFunctional Biogeography Functional rarity iconFunctional Rarity Metacommunities iconMetacommunities Nature for Future iconNature for Future Reviews and synthesis iconReviews and Synthesis Trophic biogeography and metaweb iconTrophic Biogeography & Metaweb Biodiful iconBiodiful OutreachOutreach