Biology subjects

Peller, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Peller, T..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

A single attractor governs the population dynamics of marine fishes worldwide

Population fluctuations are now empirically recognized to be nonlinear, but the governing attractors are poorly understood. Here we show that population dynamics of 457 marine fish stocks from 121 species worldwide are governed by a single attractor that partitions into three archetypes reflecting top predators, mesopredators and forage fish, with stock-specific ecological and evolutionary variation. Correlation between attractors was high across all stocks (mean 0.53 to 0.63), greater within archetypes (0.57 to 0.77), and increased with geographic, phylogenetic and life history similarity. Leveraging shared attractors increased prediction skill in ~90% of cases, raising mean recruitment skill from 0.38 to 0.75 and even enabling moderate prediction for otherwise poorly predictable stocks. These results reveal that marine fish population dynamics are not heterogeneous but are realizations of a single attractor structured by trophic level, with immediate predictive benefits for global fisheries.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Changing seasonality and phenology mediate the effects of migration across meta-ecosystems

Migration is a ubiquitous process that links ecosystems with distinct seasonal dynamics, transferring biomass and species interactions across space. Despite being widely altered by global change, studies commonly overlook the interaction of seasonal characteristics and bidirectional migration on species coexistence and biomass production across meta-ecosystems. We developed a mathematical model to study how migration interacts with key characteristics of seasonality--amplitude of variation and length of summer--to influence migrant persistence, consumer coexistence, and biomass production. Our findings demonstrate that seasonal characteristics mediate the effect of migration on coexistence and biomass production across meta-ecosystems. However, the effects strongly depend on migration timing: phenological mismatches can reduce biomass at local and meta-ecosystem scales and lead to the extinction of migratory and non-migratory consumers. Our study highlights how migration and seasonality interact to shape community structure and ecosystem function across scales, emphasizing the importance of system-level approaches for studying ecological outcomes of global change.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Food-web coupling by mobile consumers has individual to ecosystem level effects

Mobile consumers serve as a ubiquitous link, coupling the dynamics and functions of different ecosystems, ranging from diel-vertical migration of zooplankton to seasonal movements of large ungulates. Despite mounting theoretical interest, experimental tests of the effects of consumer mobility in meta-ecosystems are virtually non-existent. Here, we used an experimental microcosm system to investigate how mobile consumers (Daphnia magna) mediate ecosystem biomass, community structure, and their own fitness by coupling spatially distinct aquatic ecosystems composed of two different protist communities. We found that consumer mobility significantly influenced the effect of consumption on ecosystem biomass and the growth and reproduction of the consumers, themselves. However, the direction and magnitude of these effects depended on community composition in the connected ecosystem. Further, we found consumer mobility consistently promoted the coexistence of a competing local species, regardless of community composition in the connected ecosystem. Our findings underscore the profound role of consumer mobility in shaping individual to ecosystem-level dynamics while emphasizing a strong mediating effect of community composition across the landscape.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Networks of marine protected areas under fluctuating connectivity: the importance of within-MPA dynamics

The design of marine protected areas (MPAs) has been optimized under assumptions of spatially and temporally homogeneous larval dispersal, despite complex spatiotemporal patterns displayed by ocean currents. Here we studied the effect of dispersal variability on the effectiveness of MPA networks across scales. We adopted a nested approach integrating the dynamics of both within and among MPA connectivity into a stochastic metapopulation model and first derived metapopulation persistence (required reproductive effort) and stability over MPA networks by partitioning within and among MPA contributions in relation to the spatial resolution of within-MPA connectivity. We applied this framework over a range of dispersal traits (spawning time and pelagic larval duration) and MPA network configurations, based on simulated biophysical connectivity along the northeast Pacific coast. Our results show how within-MPA dynamics affect predictions based on parameters of MPA networks such as MPA size, spacing, and pelagic larval duration. Increasing within-MPA spatial resolution predicted increasing population persistence and stability independently of other network properties. High-resolution within-MPA dynamics also predicted a negative relationship between species persistence and MPA spacing while that relationship was non-monotonic under low-resolution within-MPA dynamics. Our analysis also resolved the role of pelagic larval duration for scaling up within-MPA dynamics to MPA networks: species with short larval duration led to increasing network stability with MPA spacing while the opposite was observed for species with long larval duration. Our study stresses the importance of integrating fluctuating larval connectivity, both within and among MPAs, and more specifically suggest the benefit of small and nearby MPAs under increasing ocean variability.

ecology↗