Quantitative biogeography: Decreasing and more variable dynamics of keystone and foundation species in an iconic meta-ecosystem

Ecosystem stability has intrigued ecologists for decades, and the realization that the global climate was changing sharpened and focused this interest. Determination of climate change effects on community stability, however, requires long-term studies of structure and underlying dynamics, including bottom-up and top-down effects in natural ecosystems. Although relevant datasets were rare in the early years of community ecology, such information has increased in recent decades. In a rocky intertidal system, we investigated the changes in ecological subsidies (nutrients, phytoplankton, prey colonization), several performance metrics of the dominant space occupier (mussels) and its primary predator (sea stars), and rate of predation by sea stars on mussels in relation to climatic oscillations, temperature, and disease. We focused on spatio-temporal changes in the mean and variability of these metrics. The research protocol involved annually repeated multiyear (~1999–2018), multisite (13 si...