Spatio-temporal variability of richness estimators: coastal marine fish communities as examples.

We assessed the performance of two estimators of species richness, the Chao2 and the Coleman 'random placement curve'. Using a dataset of intertidal fish from the Norwegian Skagerrak coast, we found that Chao2 was effective for low sampling intensity, often reaching asymptotic values for few samples, but for higher sampling intensity the performance deteriorated. For large samples, the Coleman random placement curve was more effective than the Chao2 estimates when comparing spatio-temporal patterns of species richness. Spatial patterns were clearly and consistently identified by both methods, whereas the coastal fish communities displayed too much variability in the early summer for any sensible measure of temporal patterns of fish-species richness to be made. To control for spurious results due to systematic differences in mean abundance of the samples the analyses were performed also on data standardised by the number of individuals in the samples, without any significant change in the results. We conclude that modest sampling effort is sufficient to characterise spatial patterns of coastal fish-species richness, while a detailed and high-precision description of seasonal patterns could not be obtained with any reasonable sampling effort.

Snow conditions may create an invisible barrier for lynx.

The dynamics of Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis) abundance are geographically structured according to the influence of large-scale climatic regimes. Here we demonstrate that this structuring matches zones of differential snow conditions, in particular surface hardness, as determined by the frequency of winter warm spells. Through a modified functional response curve, we show that various features of the snow may influence lynx interaction with its main prey species, the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). This study highlights the importance of snow, and exemplifies how large-scale climatic fluctuations can mechanistically influence population biological patterns.

The effect of climatic forcing on population synchrony and genetic structuring of the Canadian lynx.

The abundance of Canadian lynx follows 10-year density fluctuations across the Canadian subcontinent. These cyclic fluctuations have earlier been shown to be geographically structured into three climatic regions: the Atlantic, Continental, and Pacific zones. Recent genetic evidence revealed an essentially similar spatial structuring. Introducing a new population model, the "climate forcing of ecological and evolutionary patterns" model, we link the observed ecological and evolutionary patterns. Specifically, we demonstrate that there is greater phase synchrony within climatic zones than between them and show that external climatic forcing may act as a synchronizer. We simulated genetic drift by using data on population dynamics generated by the climate forcing of ecological and evolutionary patterns model, and we demonstrate that the observed genetic structuring can be seen as an emerging property of the spatiotemporal ecological dynamics.

Ecology: living in synchrony on Greenland coasts?

Theory indicates that correlated weather may synchronize populations, but the extent to which this holds for non-identical, nonlinear systems is uncertain. Post and Forchhammer claim to have shown climate-induced synchrony for musk oxen and caribou that are separated by the Greenland ice sheet. However, logical and mathematical errors undermine their finding. Whether or not large-scale weather can be a major synchronizing factor across species remains an open question.