Data from: Life history traits and functional processes generate multiple pathways to ecological stability

Stability contributes to the persistence of ecological communities, yet
the interactions among different stabilizing forces are poorly understood.
We assembled mesocosms with an algal resource and 1-8 different clones of
the consumer Daphnia ambigua and tracked algal and Daphnia abundances
through time. We then fitted coupled ordinary differential equations
(ODEs) to the consumer-resource time series. We show that variation in
different components of stability (local stability and the magnitude of
population fluctuations) across mesocosms arises through variation in life
history traits and the functional processes represented by ODE model
parameters. Local stability was enhanced by increased algal growth rate
and Daphnia mortality and foraging rate. Population fluctuations were
dampened by high Daphnia conversion efficiency and lower interaction
strengths, low algal growth rate, high Daphnia death rate, and low Daphnia
foraging. These results indicate that 1) stability in consumer-resource
systems may arise through the net effect of multiple related stabilizing
pathways, and 2) different aspects of stability can vary independently and
may respond in opposite directions to the same forces.