TY - JOUR

T1 - Tripartite networks show that keystone species can multitask

AU - Timóteo, Sérgio

AU - Albrecht, Jörg

AU - Rumeu, Beatriz

AU - Norte, Ana C.

AU - Traveset, Anna

AU - Frost, Carol M.

AU - Marchante, Elizabete

AU - López-Núñez, Francisco A.

AU - Peralta, Guadalupe

AU - Memmott, Jane

AU - Olesen, Jens M.

AU - Costa, José M.

AU - da Silva, Luís P.

AU - Carvalheiro, Luísa G.

AU - Correia, Marta

AU - Staab, Michael

AU - Blüthgen, Nico

AU - Farwig, Nina

AU - Hervías-Parejo, Sandra

AU - Mironov, Sergei

AU - Rodríguez-Echeverría, Susana

AU - Heleno, Ruben

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Functional Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.

PY - 2023/2

Y1 - 2023/2

N2 - Keystone species are disproportionately important for ecosystem functioning. While all species engage in multiple interaction types with other species, keystone species importance is often defined based on a single dimension of their Eltonian niche, that is, one type of interaction (e.g. keystone predator). It remains unclear whether the importance of keystone species is unidimensional or if it extends across interaction types. We conducted a meta-analysis of tripartite interaction networks examining whether species importance in one dimension of their niche is mirrored in other niche dimensions, and whether this is associated with interaction outcome, intimacy or species richness. We show that keystone species importance is positively associated across multiple ecological niche dimensions, independently of abundance, and find no evidence that multidimensionality of keystone species is influenced by the explanatory variables. We propose that the role of keystone species extends across multiple ecological niche dimensions, with important implications for ecosystem resilience and conservation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

AB - Keystone species are disproportionately important for ecosystem functioning. While all species engage in multiple interaction types with other species, keystone species importance is often defined based on a single dimension of their Eltonian niche, that is, one type of interaction (e.g. keystone predator). It remains unclear whether the importance of keystone species is unidimensional or if it extends across interaction types. We conducted a meta-analysis of tripartite interaction networks examining whether species importance in one dimension of their niche is mirrored in other niche dimensions, and whether this is associated with interaction outcome, intimacy or species richness. We show that keystone species importance is positively associated across multiple ecological niche dimensions, independently of abundance, and find no evidence that multidimensionality of keystone species is influenced by the explanatory variables. We propose that the role of keystone species extends across multiple ecological niche dimensions, with important implications for ecosystem resilience and conservation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

KW - Eltonian niche

KW - functional niche space

KW - keystone species

KW - keystoneness

KW - meta-analysis

KW - multitrophic interactions

KW - species importance

KW - tri-trophic networks

KW - tripartite networks

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141387679&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1365-2435.14206

DO - 10.1111/1365-2435.14206

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85141387679

VL - 37

SP - 274

EP - 286

JO - Functional Ecology

JF - Functional Ecology

SN - 0269-8463

IS - 2

ER -