Environmental change and declining resource availability for small-mammal communities in the Great Basin

Changes in climate and land use can impact natural systems across all levels of ecological organization. Most documented and anticipated effects consider species' properties, including phenologies, geographic distributions, and abundances. Responses of higher-level aggregate community or ecosystem properties have not been considered as they are assumed to be relatively stable due to compensatory dynamics and diversity-stability relationships. However, this assumption may not be as fundamental as previously thought. Here we assess stability in the aggregate properties of total abundance, biomass, and energy consumption for small-mammal communities in the Great Basin, using paired historical and modern survey data spanning nearly a century of environmental change. Results show marked declines in each aggregate property independent of spatial scale, elevation, or habitat type, and a reallocation of available biomass and energy favoring diet and habitat generalists. Because aggregate properties directly reflect resource availability, our findings indicate a regionwide decline in resources of 50% over the past century, which may signal a resource crisis. This work illustrates the power of using aggregate properties as indicators of ecological conditions and environmental change at broad spatial and temporal scales.     

Running to stand still: temperature effects on species richness, species turnover, and functional community dynamics

The information on temperature-mediated changes in biodiversity in local assemblages is scarce and mainly addresses the change in species richness. However, warming may have more consistent effects on species turnover than on the number of species. Moreover, very few studies extended the analysis of changes in biodiversity and species composition to questions of associated ecosystem functions such as primary production. Here, we synthesize 4 case studies employing microalgal microcosms within the Aquashift priority program to ask (1) do warming-related shifts in species richness correspond to changes in the rate of biomass production, (2) do similar relationships prevail for evenness, and (3) do warming-related shifts in species turnover stabilize or destabilize biomass production? Two of the four cases are previously unpublished, and for a third case, the link between diversity and functional consequences of temperature was not analyzed before. We found accelerated loss of species with warming in all cases. Biomass production was lower with lower species richness in most cases but increased with lower evenness. Most importantly, the relation between functional and compositional stability was different between cases: More rapid extinction resulted in more variable biomass in 2 cases conducted with a limited species pool, indicating that compositional destabilization relates to functional variability. By contrast, the only experiment with a large species pool (30 species) allowed previously rare species to become dominant in the community and showed more stable biomass at high turnover, indicating that compensatory dynamics (turnover) can promote functional stability. These 4 independent experiments highlight the need to consider both compositional and functional consequences of altered temperature regimes.     

三江源区不同建植年代人工草地群落演替与土壤养分变化

研究了了三源区不同建植期人工修复草地在不同演替阶段毒杂草[主要是甘肃马先蒿(Pedicularis kansuensis)]的入侵规律、数量特征,植物群落物种组成、生物苗和草地质最以及土壤养分、微生物活性的变化规律.结果表明,不同建植期人工修复草地植物群落的种类组成、植物功能群组成和群落数量特征存在显著差异.随着演替时间的推移,人工草地群落盖度、高度、物种数、生物最和多样性指数均表现出"V"字型变化规律,杂类草--甘肃马先蒿的数量特征变化尤为明显,在4 a的人工草地群落中开始局部入侵,在5～6 a的人工草地群落中大面积入侵,其入侵速度、入侵面积达到高峰期.土壤的含水量、容重、土壤中有机质、氮素和磷素在演替过程(7 a、9 a草地)中逐渐降低,到一定时期又逐步增加;随着演替的进行,不同建植期人工草地的土壤微牛物生物量碳和酶活性均呈"V"字型,变化.对于退化生态系统的恢复首先是植被恢复,其次是土壤肥力的恢复.土壤有机质等养分的积累、微生物活性的改善不仅能使土壤-植物复合系统的功能得以恢复,同时也能促进物种多样性的形成,有利于人工草地群落稳定性的提高.在试验区尽管植被恢复演替进行得比较缓慢,但从土壤发展的角度看,仍属进展演替.所以,在退化高寒草甸的恢复过程中,若降低和有效控制外界的干扰(如围栏封育),可为退化草地恢复提供繁殖体与土壤环境,实现人工草地逐步向恢复(正向)演替进行.图3表6参34     

Disturbance and landscape dynamics in a changing world

Disturbance regimes are changing rapidly, and the consequences of such changes for ecosystems and linked social-ecological systems will be profound. This paper synthesizes current understanding of disturbance with an emphasis on fundamental contributions to contemporary landscape and ecosystem ecology, then identifies future research priorities. Studies of disturbance led to insights about heterogeneity, scale, and thresholds in space and time and catalyzed new paradigms in ecology. Because they create vegetation patterns, disturbances also establish spatial patterns of many ecosystem processes on the landscape. Drivers of global change will produce new spatial patterns, altered disturbance regimes, novel trajectories of change, and surprises. Future disturbances will continue to provide valuable opportunities for studying pattern-process interactions. Changing disturbance regimes will produce acute changes in ecosystems and ecosystem services over the short (years to decades) and long-term (centuries and beyond). Future research should address questions related to (1) disturbances as catalysts of rapid ecological change, (2) interactions among disturbances, (3) relationships between disturbance and society, especially the intersection of land use and disturbance, and (4) feedbacks from disturbance to other global drivers. Ecologists should make a renewed and concerted effort to understand and anticipate the causes and consequences of changing disturbance regimes.     

Restoration of rivers used for timber floating: effects on riparian plant diversity.

Fluvial processes such as flooding and sediment deposition play a crucial role in structuring riparian plant communities. In rivers throughout the world, these processes have been altered by channelization and other anthropogenic stresses. Yet despite increasing awareness of the need to restore natural flow regimes for the preservation of riparian biodiversity, few studies have examined the effects of river restoration on riparian ecosystems. In this study, we examined the effects of restoration in the Ume River system, northern Sweden, where tributaries were channelized to facilitate timber floating in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Restoration at these sites involved the use of heavy machinery to replace instream boulders and remove floatway structures that had previously lined stream banks and cut off secondary channels. We compared riparian plant communities along channelized stream reaches with those along reaches that had been restored 3-10 years prior to observation. Species richness and evenness were significantly increased at restored sites, as were floodplain inundation frequencies. These findings demonstrate how river restoration and associated changes in fluvial disturbance regimes can enhance riparian biodiversity. Given that riparian ecosystems tend to support a disproportionate share of regional species pools, these findings have potentially broad implications for biodiversity conservation at regional or landscape scales.     

衡阳紫色土丘陵坡地自然恢复过程中微生物量碳动态变化

以典型的衡阳紫色土丘陵坡地植被不同恢复阶段为研究对象,采用空间代替时间序列方法,选用立地条件基本相似的裸荒地、草本群落、灌木群落和乔木群落等4类典型样地,分别代表群落演替进程中4个不同的演替阶段,通过调查取样和实验分析,探索不同演替阶段土壤微生物量碳（MBC）的大小与活性。结果表明：（1）土壤有机碳（SOC）与MBC呈先下降后增大的趋势,其差异在各演替阶段达显著水平（P〈0．05）,SOC与MBC呈现显著正相关关系（P〈0．05）;（2）微生物熵（MQ）与代谢熵（qC02）呈显著负相关关系（P〈0．05）,随着演替的进行,MQ整体上呈现出下降趋势,各演替阶段其值的差异达显著水平（P〈0．05）;（3）MQ与MBC呈极显著负相关（P〈0．01）,并随着演替的进行,呈现出先升后降的变化趋势,各演替阶段qCO2的差异达显著水平（P〈0．05）;（4）在演替初期,土壤有效基质逐渐降低,而在演替后期有效基质不断增加,此有利于SOC与MBC的提高,有利于土壤肥力的提高。研究结果将丰富该地区植物生态学与恢复生态学的内容,为衡阳紫色土丘陵坡地生态系统的恢复与重建提供了重要依据。     

Population and community resilience in multitrophic communities

Diversity-stability relationships have long been a topic of controversy in ecology, but one whose importance has been re-highlighted by increasing large-scale threats to global biodiversity. The ability of a community to recover from a perturbation (or resilience) is a common measure of stability that has received a large amount of theoretical attention. Yet, general expectations regarding diversity-resilience relations remain elusive. Moreover, the effects of productivity and its interaction with diversity on resilience are equally unclear. We examined the effects of species diversity, species composition, and productivity on population-and community-level resilience in experimental aquatic food webs composed of bacteria, algae, heterotrophic protozoa, and rotifers. Productivity manipulations were crossed with manipulations of the number of species and species compositions within trophic groups. Resilience was measured by perturbing communities with a nonselective, density-independent, mortality event and comparing responses over time between perturbed communities and controls. We found evidence that species diversity can enhance resilience at the community level (i.e., total community biomass), though this effect was more strongly expressed in low-productivity treatments. Diversity effects on resilience were driven by a sampling/selection effect, with resilient communities showing rapid response and dominance by a minority of species (primarily unicellular algae). In contrast, diversity had no effect on mean population-level resilience. Instead, the ability of a community's populations to recover from perturbations was dependent on species composition. We found no evidence of an effect of productivity, either positive or negative, on community- or population-level resilience. Our results indicate that the role of diversity as an insurer of stability may depend on the level of biological organization at which stability is measured, with effects emerging only when focusing on aggregate community properties.     

Spectral analysis unmasks synchronous and compensatory dynamics in plankton communities

Community biomass is often less variable than the biomasses of populations within the community, yet attempts to implicate compensatory dynamics between populations as a cause of this relationship often fail. In part, this may be due to the lack of appropriate metrics for variability, but there is also great potential for large-scale processes such as seasonality or longer-term environmental change to obscure important dynamics at other temporal scales. In this study, we apply a scale-resolving method to long-term plankton data, to identify the specific temporal scales at which community-level variability is influenced by synchrony or compensatory dynamics at the population level. We show that variability at both the population and community level is influenced strongly by a few distinct temporal scales: in phytoplankton, ciliate, rotifer, and crustacean communities, synchronous dynamics are predominant at most temporal scales. However, in phytoplankton and crustacean communities, compensatory dynamics occur at a sub-annual scale (and at the annual scale in crustaceans) leading to substantial reductions in community-level variability. Aggregate measures of population and community variability do not detect compensatory dynamics in these communities; thus, resolving their scale dependence unmasks dynamics that are important for community stability in this system. The methods and results presented herein will ultimately lead to a better understanding of how stability is achieved in communities.     

Epibenthic macrofaunal community response after a mega-earthquake and tsunami in a shallow bay off central-south Chile

On February 27, 2010, the world’s sixth strongest earthquake on record (8.8 M _w) and tsunami hit central Chile. We assess the response of the epibenthic macrofaunal community following this event in Coliumo Bay, one of the areas most affected by this mega-perturbation. The indicators of aggregate and compositional variability show that 3 years after this event, the community appears to have undergone the following dynamics: (1) At an inter-annual timescale, the community (both in density and biomass) shifted through different structures with apparent directionality; (2) Oceanographic and biological seasonality had a strong cyclical influence on the inter-annual community response; (3) There was spatial homogenization of the community over time (i.e., recovery of diversity), probably promoted by the ecological functionality of scavenger species (i.e., crab Cancer coronatus and snail Nassarius spp.) and by the proportional increase in non-dominant species; (4) Bathymetry and bottom dissolved oxygen also played significant roles in the spatial structure of this community; (5) Three years after the perturbation, total density and total community biomass were still considerably below those described under unperturbed conditions, mainly associated with the decrease in density and biomass of dominant species. Therefore, in spite of this apparent community compositional recovery, the aggregate variability currently remains below the levels reported prior to the effect of the mega-earthquake and tsunami. These results provide evidence that supports both the Cross-Scale Resilience Hypothesis and the Response Diversity Hypothesis.     

Effects of species diversity on community biomass production change over the course of succession

Over the past decade an increasing number of studies have experimentally manipulated the number of species in a community and examined how this alters the aggregate production of species biomass. Many of these studies have shown that the effects of richness on biomass change through time, but we have limited understanding of the mechanisms that produce these dynamic trends. Here we report the results of an experiment in which we manipulated the richness of freshwater algae in laboratory microcosms. We used two experimental designs (additive and substitutive) that make different assumptions about how patches are initially colonized, and then tracked the development of community biomass from the point of initial colonization through a period of 6-12 generations of the focal species. We found that the effect of initial species richness on biomass production qualitatively shifted twice over the course of the experiment. The first shift occurred as species transitioned from density-independent to dependent phases of population growth. At this time, intraspecific competition caused monocultures to approach their respective carrying capacities more slowly than polycultures. As a consequence, species tended to over-yield for a brief time, generating a positive, but transient effect of diversity on community biomass. The second shift occurred as communities approached carrying capacity. At this time, strong interspecific interactions caused biomass to be dominated by the competitively superior species in polycultures. As this species had the lowest carrying capacity, a negative effect of diversity on biomass resulted in late succession. Although these two shifts produced dynamics that appeared complex, we show that the patterns can be fit to a simple Lotka-Volterra model of competition. Our results suggest that the effects of algal diversity on primary production change in a predictable sequence through successional time.     

河南省淮河流域伏牛山区主要生态恢复演替序列构建

为构建河南省淮河流域内伏牛山区的主要植被类型在生态恢复过程中的演替序列,选取了登封市、鲁山县、确山县和泌阳市4个典型地点,利用空间代替时间方法调查了不同演替系列的主要群落类型,采用排序并结合演替度、分层频度等分析方法构建了该区域的演替序列。结果表明：河南省淮河流域伏牛山区生态恢复过程中的植被群落可分为5种类型,即生态林封禁抚育群落、灌草坡封禁保护群落、梯田耕作经济林群落、梯田经济林弃耕群落、禁牧禁樵生态林群落;群落稳定性大小依次为栎类林、经济林与人工针叶林;植被演替可构建为自然恢复、人工种植后的自然恢复、人工经济林、进展与逆行等4个演替序列;其基本序列可识别为草丛、灌丛、人工林、经济林弃耕恢复林、栎类幼龄林、栎类中龄林等,演替度平均值分别为1.06、5.33、6.19、11.09、12.86、12.26;阔叶树种通常具有较大的分层频度,表明其良好的进展性与稳定性,以其为主要种类所构成的群落类型基本上均处于演替序列中的后期阶段;因此,可以将阔叶林以及特殊条件下的人工林设定为该区域生态恢复的目标植被类型。将几种演替分析方法综合运用,可以较全面地从区域微观尺度上揭示植被的演替过程,能较好地阐明植被演替过程;研究结果可以为生态恢复过程中植被动态与水文生态功能动态相关性、流域生态功能区划、生态恢复目标的制定与过程设计、以及流域生态保护策略制定等提供依据。     

植被根系及其土壤理化特征在高寒小嵩草草甸退化演替过程中的变化

以野外样地调查和室内分析法研究了不同退化演替阶段高寒小嵩草草甸的植被根系空间变化和土壤环境因子间的关系。结果表明,不同退化演替阶段高寒小嵩草草甸群落植被根系和蕴育植被根系的土壤量发生了明显的变化。特别是0~10 cm土层的植被根系在重度退化阶段显著高于其它退化演替阶段（P〈0.05）,而蕴育植被根系的＂载体＂量在重度退化阶段显著低于其它退化演替阶段（P〈0.05）,根土比（根和土的重量比）明显高于其它退化演替阶段（P〈0.05）;随着退化演替阶段的进行,高寒小嵩草草甸群落物种数、地上部分、植被根系锐减,群落结构和功能明显发生变化;不同退化演替阶段,植被根系（0~40 cm）的垂直分布、根土比与土壤容重、土壤含水量以及土壤中N、P含量存在一定的相关性;不同退化演替阶段高寒小嵩草草甸土壤理化特性的变化影响草地群落地上部分和植被根系;土壤的稳定性是草地生产稳定和恢复的重要因素,在评价与改良退化草地时,要充分了解土壤的退化程度。在高寒草甸地下根系取样方法难以统一,而且土壤表层根系和土壤很难难以分离,加之根系采样破坏性大、工作量大,根土比可能是指示高寒草甸退化程度相对可靠的量化指标。     

Recovery of Endemic Dragonflies after Removal of Invasive Alien Trees

Abstract:  Because dragonflies are very sensitive to alien trees , we assessed their response to large-scale restoration of riparian corridors. We compared three types of disturbance regime—alien invaded , cleared of alien vegetation , and natural vegetation (control)—and recorded data on 22 environmental variables. The most significant variables in determining dragonfly assemblages were percentage of bank cover and tree canopy cover , which indicates the importance of vegetation architecture for these dragonflies. This finding suggests that it is important to restore appropriate marginal vegetation and sunlight conditions. Recovery of dragonfly assemblages after the clearing of alien trees was substantial. Species richness and abundance at restored sites matched those at control sites. Dragonfly assemblage patterns reflected vegetation succession. Thus , initially eurytopic , widespread species were the main beneficiaries of the removal of alien trees , and stenotopic , endemic species appeared after indigenous vegetation recovered over time. Important indicator species were the two national endemics ( Allocnemis leucosticta and Pseudagrion furcigerum ) , which , along with vegetation type , can be used to monitor return of overall integrity of riparian ecology and to make management decisions. Endemic species as a whole responded positively to restoration , which suggests that indigenous vegetation recovery has major benefits for irreplaceable and widespread generalist species .     

Ecology, management and monitoring of grey dunes in Flanders

Grey dunes are a priority habitat type of the European Union Habitats Directive and demand special attention for conservation and management. Knowledge of the ecology of coastal grey dunes can contribute to this policy. Dune grassland succession is initiated by fixation and driven by the complex of soil formation (humus accumulation) and vegetation development. Leaching and mobilization of CaCO₃. which are important in nutrient dynamics, complicate the picture. At present, grass- and scrub encroachment greatly overrules these fine scaled soil processes and causes substantial loss of regional biodiversity. Belgium has an international responsibility in grey dune conservation because of the limited range of its characteristic vegetation, flora and fauna. As biomass removal seems essential in grassland preservation, grazing is an important management tool. Evaluation of management measures focuses on biodiversity measurements on the levels of landscape, community and species.     

Consequences of dominance: a review of evenness effects on local and regional ecosystem processes

The composition of communities is strongly altered by anthropogenic manipulations of biogeochemical cycles, abiotic conditions, and trophic structure in all major ecosystems. Whereas the effects of species loss on ecosystem processes have received broad attention, the consequences of altered species dominance for emergent properties of communities and ecosystems are poorly investigated. Here we propose a framework guiding our understanding of how dominance affects species interactions within communities, processes within ecosystems, and dynamics on regional scales. Dominance (or the complementary term, evenness) reflects the distribution of traits in a community, which in turn affects the strength and sign of both intraspecifc and interspecific interactions. Consequently, dominance also mediates the effect of such interactions on species coexistence. We review the evidence for the fact that dominance directly affects ecosystem functions such as process rates via species identity (the dominant trait) and evenness (the frequency distribution of traits), and indirectly alters the relationship between process rates and species richness. Dominance also influences the temporal and spatial variability of aggregate community properties and compositional stability (invasibility). Finally, we propose that dominance affects regional species coexistence by altering metacommunity dynamics. Local dominance leads to high beta diversity, and rare species can persist because of source-sink dynamics, but anthropogenically induced environmental changes result in regional dominance and low beta diversity, reducing regional coexistence. Given the rapid anthropogenic alterations of dominance in many ecosystems and the strong implications of these changes, dominance should be considered explicitly in the analysis of consequences of altered biodiversity.     

Food web structure of a restored macroalgal bed in the eastern Korean peninsula determined by C and N stable isotope analyses

Loss of macroalgae habitats has been widespread on rocky marine coastlines of the eastern Korean peninsula, and efforts for restoration and creation of macroalgal beds have increasingly been made to mitigate these habitat losses. Deploying artificial reefs of concrete pyramids with kelps attached has been commonly used and applied in this study. As a part of an effort to evaluate structural and functional recovery of created and restored habitat, the macroalgal community and food web structure were studied about a year after the establishment of the artificial macroalgal bed, making comparisons with nearby natural counterparts and barren ground communities. Dominant species, total abundance, and community structure of macroalgal assemblage at the restored macroalgal bed recovered to the neighboring natural bed levels during the study period. The main primary producers (phytoplankton and macroalgae) were isotopically well separated. δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of consumers were very similar between restored and natural beds but varied greatly among functional feeding groups. The range of consumer δ¹³C was as wide as that of primary producers, indicating the trophic importance of both producers. There was a stepwise trophic enrichment in δ¹⁵N with increasing trophic level. A comparison of isotope signatures between primary producers and consumers showed that, while suspension feeders are highly dependent on pelagic sources, invertebrates of other feeding guilds and fishes mainly use macroalgae-derived organic matter as their ultimate nutritional sources in both macroalgal beds, emphasizing the high equivalency of trophic structure between both beds. Isotopic signatures of a few mollusks and sea urchins showed that they use different dietary items in macroalgal-barren grounds compared with macroalgal beds, probably reflecting their feeding plasticity according to the low macroalgal biomass. However, isotopic signatures of most of the consumers at the barren ground were consistent with those at the macroalgal beds, supporting the important trophic role of drifting algae. Our results revealed the recoveries of the macroalgal community and trophic structure at the restored habitat. Further studies on colonization of early settlers and the following succession progress are needed to better understand the process and recovery rate in the developing benthic community.     

Detection of scale-specific community dynamics using wavelets

The response of ecological communities to anthropogenic disturbance is of both scientific and practical interest. Communities where all species respond to disturbance in a similar fashion (synchrony) will exhibit large fluctuations in total biomass and dramatic changes in ecosystem function. Communities where some species increase in abundance while others decrease after disturbance (compensation) can maintain total biomass and ecosystem function in the face of anthropogenic change. We examined dynamics of the Little Rock Lake (Wisconsin, USA) zooplankton community in the context of an experimental pH manipulation conducted in one basin of the lake. A novel application of wavelets was used to partition patterns of synchrony and compensation by time scale. We find interestingly that some time series show both patterns of synchrony and compensation depending on the scale of analysis. Within the unmanipulated basin, we found subtle patterns of synchrony and compensation within the community, largely at a one-year time scale corresponding to seasonal variation. Within the acidified lake basin, dynamics shifted to longer time scales corresponding to the pattern of pH manipulation. Comparisons between pairs of species in different functional groups showed both strong compensatory and synchronous responses to disturbance. The strongest compensatory signal was observed for two species of Daphnia whose life history traits lead to synchrony at annual time scales, but whose differential sensitivity to acidification led to compensation at multiannual time scales. The separation of time scales inherent in the wavelet method greatly facilitated interpretation as patterns resulting from seasonal drivers could be separated from patterns driven by pH manipulation.     

Importance of including cultural practices in ecological restoration

Ecosystems worldwide have a long history of use and management by indigenous cultures. However, environmental degradation can reduce the availability of culturally important resources. Ecological restoration aims to repair damage to ecosystems caused by human activity, but it is unclear how often restoration projects incorporate the return of harvesting or traditional life patterns for indigenous communities. We examined the incorporation of cultural use of natural resources into ecological restoration in the context of a culturally important but protected New Zealand bird; among award‐winning restoration projects in Australasia and worldwide; and in the peer‐reviewed restoration ecology literature. Among New Zealand's culturally important bird species, differences in threat status and availability for hunting were large. These differences indicate the values of a colonizing culture can inhibit harvesting by indigenous people. In Australasia among award‐winning ecological restoration projects, <17% involved human use of restored areas beyond aesthetic or recreational use, despite many projects encouraging community participation. Globally, restoration goals differed among regions. For example, in North America, projects were primarily conservation oriented, whereas in Asia and Africa projects frequently focused on restoring cultural harvesting. From 1995 to 2014, the restoration ecology literature contained few references to cultural values or use. We argue that restoration practitioners are missing a vital component for reassembling functional ecosystems. Inclusion of sustainably harvestable areas within restored landscapes may allow for the continuation of traditional practices that shaped ecosystems for millennia, and also aid project success by ensuring community support.     

Zooplankton community resilience after press-type anthropogenic stress in temporary ponds.

Temporary ponds are physically disturbed environments that fluctuate on seasonal and interannual scales. These ecosystems are also susceptible to anthropogenic perturbation such as contamination inputs. However, the interactive effects of natural disturbance and anthropogenic stress on ecosystem processes and community dynamics have hardly been assessed in these ecosystem types. We used a multiple before-after control-impact (MBACI) design to study zooplankton community recovery from low and high inputs of a fire retardant in artificially constructed ponds over three hydroperiods. The retardant caused a decline in species richness and an increase in rotifers during summer and winter months relative to controls and pretreatment dates, and the duration of these changes varied among retardant treatments. In nonmetric, multidimensional scaling analyses the increased rotifer densities were reflected in loops that showed recurring deviations from and (upon collapse) approaches to reference conditions, while the effects of the anthropogenic stressor persisted in the ponds. The amplitudes of fluctuation followed no regular patterns; it varied with retardant treatment level and was higher in the third hydroperiod compared to the second in one of the treatments. From a temporal perspective, this non-dampened pattern suggests a new cause-effect mechanism for disturbance ecology, which we refer to as a "protracted press disturbance, roller coaster response" relationship. This model emphasizes stochastic oscillations in community composition, punctuated by periods in which the community approaches reference conditions. From the applied viewpoint, this model suggests that the accurate detection of perturbation and the implementation of sound management and restoration strategies will require intensive sampling designs that span multiple hydroperiods in persistently degraded ponds.