德国柏林洪堡大学Fernando Blanco等研究人员揭示进化时间尺度上哺乳动物群体的间断性生态平衡。这一研究成果于2021年4月16日发表在国际学术期刊《科学》上。

使用网络分析和跨越过去2100万年的特殊化石数据集，研究人员表明哺乳动物生态组合经历了长期的功能性瘀滞，尽管由于分散、形态和灭绝而导致了高度的分类学不稳定性。功能较高的丰富和多样性促进了功能性动物的持久性，尽管物种灭绝风险在这些不同的动物园中无法区分。

这些发现，以及功能性和分类学交替之间的巨大不匹配，表明虽然保障功能多样性可能不会最大限度地减少物种丧失，但它肯定会在面对未来的紊乱方面提高生态系统功能的持久性。

据悉，深度生态动态的研究能够通过预期未来数百万年中生态系统的行为来提供保护决策。

附：英文原文

Title: Punctuated ecological equilibrium in mammal communities over evolutionary time scales

Author: Fernando Blanco, Joaquín Calatayud, David M. Martín-Perea, M. Soledad Domingo, Iris Menéndez, Johannes Müller, Manuel Hernández Fernández, Juan L. Cantalapiedra

Issue&Volume: 2021/04/16

Abstract: The study of deep-time ecological dynamics has the ability to inform conservation decisions by anticipating the behavior of ecosystems millions of years into the future. Using network analysis and an exceptional fossil dataset spanning the past 21 million years, we show that mammalian ecological assemblages undergo long periods of functional stasis, notwithstanding high taxonomic volatility due to dispersal, speciation, and extinction. Higher functional richness and diversity promoted the persistence of functional faunas despite species extinction risk being indistinguishable among these different faunas. These findings, and the large mismatch between functional and taxonomic successions, indicate that although safeguarding functional diversity may or may not minimize species losses, it would certainly enhance the persistence of ecosystem functioning in the face of future disturbances.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abd5110

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6539/300