LTER: A synthesis to identify how metacommunity dynamics mediate community responses to disturbance across the ecosystems represented in the LTER network

What factors most affect the stability of ecosystems? Previous research has identified a few major factors (dispersal, niche differentiation, and habitat heterogeneity) as being important in recovery from disturbance. But researchers don’t know whether these factors confer stability over long time scales or across ecosystem types. Using datasets from across the LTER Network, the working group is assessing how the strongly each of these factors influences stability at different levels of disturbance and how the relationship changes over space and time.