Effects of multiple stressors on the dimensionality of ecological stability

Ecological stability is a multidimensional construct. Investigating multiple stability dimensions is key to understand how ecosystems respond to disturbance. Here, we evaluated the single and combined effects of common agricultural stressors (insecticide, herbicide and nutrients) on four dimensions of stability (resistance, resilience, recovery and invariability) and on the overall dimensionality of stability (DS) using the results of a freshwater mesocosm experiment. Functional recovery and resilience to pesticides were enhanced in nutrient-enriched systems, whereas compositional recovery was generally not achieved. Pesticides did not affect compositional DS, whereas functional DS was significantly increased by the insecticide only in nutrient-enriched systems. Stressor interactions acted non-additively on single stability dimensions as well as on functional DS. Moreover, we demonstrate that pesticides can modify the correlation between functional and compositional aspects of stability. Our study shows that different disturbance types, and their interactions, require specific management actions to promote ecosystem stability.

Methods
The data contained in this dataset come from a freshwater mesocosm experiment performed between April and July 2019 in Central Spain. During the experiment, phytoplankton, zooplankton and macroinvertebrates were sampled several time.