Asynchrony of species is more important than diversity

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The abundance of species, that is their frequency, is subject to natural variati
The abundance of species, that is their frequency, is subject to natural variations over the course of time. These variations are indicated here as dotted lines. The mean variation of the entire community fluctuates much more if the individual species are synchronous with each other. In contrast, if the abundance of the individual species varies asynchronously, the abundance of the species community as a whole is very stable. This difference is referred to as the portfolio effect, as stock market investors also invest in asynchronously fluctuating securities to attenuate the risk across the entire portfolio." (Abb.: TUM/ Gossner)

Whether an animal or plant community remains stable despite external impacts does not depend on biological diversity alone: asynchrony across the species is also a crucial factor. The more the species in an ecosystem fluctuate in their evolution over time, the less they are likely to falter. As a result, diversity takes second place in terms of the factors to be considered in the context of ecosystem stability. A team of scientists spearheaded by the TU Munich and TU Darmstadt have published these findings in the journal "Nature ".


The long-term functioning of ecosystems depends on the stability of their species communities, as these ensure the functioning of the entire system lifecycle. However, land use causes a reduction of the number of species in many ecosystems. ...
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