One critical aspect of ecosystem functioning is its stability. Ecological stability is key to both the maintenance of biodiversity and the sustainability of human societies as fluctuations of ecosystem services often have detrimental effects. We currently focus on the development of new approaches to quantifying and understanding ecosystem stability in time and space. We also test experimentally the effects of diverse plant and symbiont communities on the stability of ecosystems functions. Stability has been defined in many different ways that have been kept separate so far. We establish connections between different stability measures, notably empirical and theoretical measures, and build a new body of theory that is relevant to empirical studies. In particular, we explore new measures of invariability, stability - area relationships, and stability across scales in metacommunities.
People involved in this research theme: Kevin Liautaud, Robin Delsol, Matthieu Barbier, Daniel Montoya, Nuria Galiana, Pierre Quevreux, Yuval Zelnik, Claire de Mazancourt, Grégoire Freschet, Bart Haegeman, Michel Loreau, Jose Montoya.