The problem of pattern and scale in ecology: what have we learned in 20 years?

By Jérôme Chave. Ecology Letters, 2013

848 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8b0042f08a4cb36d90625ba1000ed5067ec4f0e8

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Citations in the corpus

Mesocosm Experiments as a Tool for Ecological Climate-Change Research (2013, background): “There is a danger that many mesocosm studies might display a ‘randomwalk’ from the initial conditions, which if stopped too early, could be misinterpreted in terms of weak or idiosyncratic treatment effects but which may become more pronounced and consistent over time (Chave, 2013).”
Ecological assembly rules in plant communities—approaches, patterns and prospects (2012, background): “(5) Spatial scale and variability That scale is a crucial point to be considered by ecologists has long been recognized (Wiens, 1989; Levin, 1992).”
Invasive mussels induce community changes by increasing habitat complexity (2012, background): “However, the effects may be more complex, as heterogeneity of the environment is essential for species co-existence, and complex habitats offer a variety of different microhabitats and niches, allowing resource partitioning (Schoener, 1974; Pianka, 1988; Levin, 1992; Downes et al., 2000).”
REVIEW: Predictive ecology in a changing world (2015, methodology): “gress in developing ‘unified’ theories and models across temporal and spatial scales (McGill 2010; Chave 2013; Harfoot et al. 2014b), the data required to calibrate the models and test each of these predictions are not always available.”
A species-centered approach for uncovering generalities in organism responses to habitat loss and fragmentation (2014, neutral): “Th is is because living organisms diﬀ er in traits, but also because they vary enormously in size (10 (cid:5) 6 – 100 m; Chave 2013).”
Local forest structure, climate and human disturbance determine regional distribution of boreal bird species richness in Alberta, Canada (2013, background): “However, the relative importance of determinants of species richness varies widely, possibly because mechanisms are scale-dependent, i.e. they vary with the grain size and spatial extent of the sampling units (Levin, 1992; Willis & Whittaker, 2002; Qian & Kissling, 2010).”
Empirical Evidence for the Scale Dependence of Biotic Interactions (2015, background): “It is widely acknowledged that ecological processes are scale dependent (Levin, 1992; Schneider, 2001; Maurer & Taper, 2002; McGill, 2010; Belmaker & Jetz, 2011).”
Is successional research nearing its climax? New approaches for understanding dynamic communities (2015, background): “Spatial patterns of resources are seen as driving processes from molecules to ecosystems (Chave 2013).”
Direct and indirect effects of climate change on soil microbial and soil microbial‐plant interactions: What lies ahead? (2015, background): “Scaling plant-microbe interactions through time, from the microbe’s perspective Microbial populations can evolve on short time scales, thus shifting plant-microbe interactions quickly and altering how we scale ecosystem processes up to longer time periods (Chave 2013).”
In Search of Mechanisms: Discoveries across the Life Sciences (2013, background): “Here they echo the words of the ecologist Simon Levin who says of biology, and of science generally, that ‘‘the key to prediction and understanding lies in the elucidation of mechanisms underlying observed patterns’’ (Levin 1992, p. 1943).”
Spatial scale and intraspecific trait variability mediate assembly rules in alpine grasslands (2017, background): “However, an important remaining issue is that patterns of diversity are inherently dependent on the spatial scale of the study (Levin 1992; Chave 2013; M€unkem€uller et al. 2014) and on the taxonomic level at which organisms are considered (as individuals, populations, species, genera, etc.).”
Phylogenetic scale in ecology and evolution (2016, methodology): “More rigorous treatment of phylogenetic scale might produce a more in-depth understanding of biological patterns and processes, similar to that previously produced by the explicit consideration of temporal and spatial scale (Chave, 2013; Levin, 1992; Wiens, 1989; Willis & Whittaker, 2002).”