DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9ghx3ffrk
title: Scale-dependent effects of biodiversity and stability on marine ecosystem dynamics

description: The global biodiversity loss is causing abrupt shifts in the structure and
 functioning of ecosystems with severe ecological and socio-economic
 consequences. Therefore, improving our understanding of ecosystem dynamics
 and regime shifts, as well as the stabilizing role of biodiversity across
 multiple scales, is needed. Here, we investigate the temporal dynamics and
 stability of marine ecosystems using high-resolution monitoring data on
 fish species composition, abundances, and traits throughout European Seas.
 More specifically, we quantify and compare the direction and magnitude of
 community change at multiple spatial scales and levels of biological
 organization. Our results show less variability in community trajectories
 at larger spatial scales and higher levels of biological organization. The
 main underlying processes providing stability are statistical averaging
 arising from a larger pool of species, while at smaller spatial scales,
 stability emerges from functional complementarity channeled through the
 distribution of species traits within functional groups.
description: This README file was generated on 2024-05-02 by Louise C. Flensborg. ##
 GENERAL INFORMATION 1\. Title of Dataset: Scale-dependent effects of
 biodiversity and stability on marine ecosystem dynamics 2\. Author
 Information A. Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: Louise C.
 Flensborg Institution: National Insitute for Aquatic resources - Denmark
 Technical University Address: Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark Email:
 [loufl@aqua.dtu.dk](mailto:loufl@aqua.dtu.dk) 3\. Date of data collection
 (single date, range, approximate date): 1982-2019 4\. Geographic location
 of data collection: Baltic Sea, Bay of Biscay, North Sea, Scotish Sea,
 French Channel, Outer Irish Sea and Inner Irish Sea. ## SHARING/ACCESS
 INFORMATION 1\. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC0 1.0
 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain 2\. Links to publications that cite or
 use the data: Louise C. Flensborg, Marcel Montanyès, Antoni Vivó Pons,
 Fernanda Carolina Da Silva1, Martin Lindegren (2024) "Scale-dependent
 effects of biodiversity and stability on marine ecosystem dynamics"
 3\. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data:
 ([https://www.ices.dk/data/data-portals/Pages/DATRAS.aspx)(https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.900866](https://www.ices.dk/data/data-portals/Pages/DATRAS.aspx\)\(https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.900866)) 4\. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: None 5\. Was data derived from another source? No 6\. Recommended citation for this dataset: Louise C. Flensborg, Marcel Montanyès, Antoni Vivó Pons, Fernanda Carolina Da Silva1, Martin Lindegren (2024) "Scale-dependent effects of biodiversity and stability on marine ecosystem dynamics" ## DATA & FILE OVERVIEW 1\. File List: A) ICESsurvey10Aug_withq.RData B) TraitCollectionFishNEPacifiContShelf.txt c) Ecoregions Script folder d) Data_preparation e) PCA_Dissimilarity_analysis r) 3-plots Ecoregions.txt - The different scales used in the study 2\. Relationship between files, if important: The file list contains the raw data used in the analyses performed in the scripts. 3\. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: None 4\. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No \######################################################################### ### DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: ICESsurveyAug10.RData 1\. Number of variables: 17 variables 2\. Number of cases/rows: 448976 3\. Final variable List: * Statrec: ices rectangles * HaulID: Numerical identifier for each unique sampling station * Survey: Area of ICES survey * Gear: Trawl gear used for the survey * year: sampling year (1982-2019) * month: sampling month * Shootlon: longitude value (decimal degrees) * Shootlat: latitude value (decimal degrees) * Area.swept: Swept area in km² * depth: sampling depth at each station (m) * Family: Species taxon * Species: all species and genus names included in the analysis * Wgth: wet weight (g) of each taxon found in that specific sample * Wgthcpue: wet weight (g) of each taxon found in that specific sample corrected with CPUE * Wgth_q :wet weight (g) of each taxon found in that specific sample corrected for gear * Wtcpue_q: wet weight (g) of each taxon found in that specific sample corrected for gear abd CPUE * Quarter: Quarter of the year \######################################################################### ### DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: TraitCollectionFishNEPacifiContShelf.txt Data structure: The data is delimited by tab characters (`\\t`), and commas (`,`) are used as decimal separators. Raw trait modalities information for all species. 1\. Number of variables: 12 2\. Number of cases/rows: 6214 3\. Variable List: In this case each column accounts for a specific trait selected traits description: * Family - species family * Genus - species genus * Species - species name * Taxon - species taxon * Offspring size (mm) - Offspring size represents the egg diameter for fish, length of egg case for skates and rays or body length of a new-born pup for sharks * Age at maturity (year) - Age at which 50% of the population becomes mature * Fecundity (No. Eggs /year) - number of eggs or offspring produced per year by female * Growth coefficient (1/year) - Von Bertalanffy growth coefficient K * Maximum length (cm) - Maximum species length recorded * Feeding mode - Herbivorous, Benthivorous, Generalist, Planktivorous, Piscivorous * Body shape - Compressiform, Short and/or deep, Flat, Elongated, Fusiform, Eel-like * Fin shape - Truncate, Rounded, Heterocercal, Forked, Lunate, Pointed \######################################################################### ### DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Ecoregions.txt Raw spatial information in 3 different scales. rectangle, survey and ecoregion 1\. Number of variables: 3 2\. Number of cases/rows: 584 3\. variable list: * rectangle - ICES Statistical Rectangles (1°longitude by 0.5° latitude grid cells, ~6000 km2) * survey - intermediate scale (rectangles of 2° in longitude by 1° in latitude ~24000 km2) * ecoregion - ICES ecoregions and advisory areas - seven areas (North Sea(NS-IBTS),Scottish West Coast(SWC-IBTS), Bay of Biscay(EVHOE), Ireland(IE-IGFS), East English Channel(FR-CGFS), Irish Sea(NIGFS), Baltic Sea(BITS) )