⚠️ Adding “complexity” isn’t a free lunch.

Stability hinges on:
👑 Dominant species
🦑 Consumer interactions
🌡️ Stress gradient context

🌍 For restoration & eco-engineering: design with these pathways in mind—test, don’t assume.

#EcologyLetters #Conservation #EcoEngineering

🔬 35 paired pitted vs smooth tiles across an emersion gradient (11 censuses, 3 yrs). Mixed models + pSEM.

✅ Stabilising:
• 🛟 refugia → ↑ population stability
• 🌱 richness → ↑ asynchrony

❌ Destabilising:
• 🐚 ↓ dominant A. modestus
• 🐌 ↓ consumer effects

➡️ Net stability ≈ 0

Key takeaways for conservation

→ Focus on preserving & restoring 3D structures as they offer the most biodiversity benefits
→ Prioritize interventions in stressful, variable environments where heterogeneity offers refugia.
→ Tailor actions to the traits and needs of focal species groups.

7/7

Finally, we produced a conceptual model to promote further hypotheses across systems

✔ Which heterogeneity facets (e.g., 3D vs. 2D) drive outcomes
✔ How species’ traits mediate their response
✔ How broader environmental stress amplifies or dampens effects

6/7

✅ Effects were strongest in stressful environments (like intertidal zones) and on biogenic substrates (like mussel beds or macroalgae).

We also found some interesting latitudinal effects along the way!

5/7

✅ Small-bodied and mobile species (like microinvertebrates) benefited the most since they can exploit fine-scale structural variation.

Heterogeneity had the clearest effects promoting recruitment and reducing grazing.

4/7

Using this framework, we found that

✅ 3D structures (like rugose reefs, kelp canopies) had the strongest positive effects, mainly by expanding niche space and habitat area.

3/7

Using previous work (McCoy & Bell, Stein, Loke et al.) we linked ‘heterogeneity facets’ with ‘heterogeneity metrics’, which allowed to synthesise information across >100 terms used for heterogeneity into six parsimonious ‘facets’.

2/7

That's great, thanks! Some cool analysis in there too

Cool research! Did they happen to mention any papers? :)