The Importance of Ecological Redundancy for Ecosystems Restoration

Restoration ecology is a multidisciplinary science that exchanges several concepts with other scientific fields to improve its practices.In this article,I discuss the ecological redundancy concept and its implications and appli­cations on ecological restoration.Ecological redundancy was coined in the early 1990s to characterize those species that play similar(equivalent)func­tions in the ecosystem.The concept made it possible to segregate species into functional groups that operate in maintaining the system.I searched the literature and found that although some restoration models naturally consider this concept,studies in areas undergoing restoration which di­rectly measure and test the ecological redundancy are still rare(n=14).I provide evidence that distinguishing redundant species and identifying key species is feasible for ecological restoration.Additionally,I suggest that redundancy should also be part of the restoration monitoring,for example,by checking if functional groups have been recovered.Theory predicts that if ecological redundancy is correctly incorporated in restoration,projects with more chances of success will be created because redundancy tends to increase ecosystem resilience.Resilience is a crucial factor for restoration sustainability in a changing environment.

How Does Focal Firms' Dual Embeddedness in Symbiotic Networks Influence Value Cocreation in Innovation Ecosystems?

Under the current complex and competitive economic environment,more and more firms are embedding themselves into symbiotic networks for value co-creation,since this has become a good strategy to obtain competitive advantages.Thus,it is important to examine the impacts of firms’embeddedness in symbiotic networks on value co-creation in innovation ecosystems.This study analyzes the mechanisms and contextual factors of firms’dual embeddedness(i.e.,relational and knowledge embeddedness)in symbiotic networks and how each influences value co-creation within innovation ecosystems.Using a sample of 1,972 observations,our findings show,firstly,that firms’dual embeddedness in symbiotic networks positively impacts on value co-creation in innovation ecosystems;secondly,that firms’dual embeddedness in symbiotic networks positively impacts on innovation ecosystem resilience;thirdly,that innovation ecosystem resilience mediates the relationships between firms’dual embeddedness in symbiotic networks and value co-creation in innovation ecosystems;and,fourthly,that innovative ecological environments positively moderate the relationship between firms’dual embeddedness and value co-creation in innovation ecosystems.These results not only enrich the theoretical framework concerning value co-creation within innovation ecosystems but also provide managerial suggestions for firms to efficiently enhance the degree of embeddedness in symbiotic networks and build highly resilient innovation ecosystems,thus promoting value co-creation among innovation ecosystem populations.

The resilience of pollination interactions: importance of temporal phases

Aims The loss of species that engage in close ecological interactions,such as pollination,has been shown to lead to secondary extinctions,ultimately threatening the overall ecosystem stability and function-ing.Pollination studies are currently flourishing at all possible levels of interaction organization(i.e.,species,guild,group and network),and different methodological protocols aimed to define the resil-ience of pollination interactions have been proposed.However,the temporal dimension of the resilience of pollination interactions has been often overlooked.In the light of these considerations,we addressed the following questions:does a temporal approach help to reveal critical moments during the flowering season,when polli-nation interactions are less resilient to perturbations?Do pollination interactions evaluated at species,guild,group and network level show different patterns when assessed through time?Methods We monitored contacts between plant and pollinator species in dry grassland communities every 15 days during the overall community flowering season(12 surveys).For each survey,we built a quantita-tive plant-pollinator interaction matrix and we calculated two sets of metrics characterizing,respectively,the diversity and the distribution of interactions across hierarchical levels.To describe the diversity of interactions,we calculated partner diversity(PD)at the species level,vulnerability/generality(V/G)at the guild level,and interaction diver-sity and evenness at the network level.The distribution of interactions was characterized by calculating selectiveness at the species and the network level,and modularity at the group level.We assessed the temporal variation of PD,V/G at the level of plants and pollinators,and species selectiveness,by means of Linear Mixed Models(LMMs).To investigate the temporal variation of indexes calculated at group and network level,we applied simple linear and quadratic regres-sions after checking for temporal autocorrelation in residuals.Important Findings When taking into account the temporal dimension of interactions,the diversity of interactions showed different patterns at different levels of organization.At the species level,no relationship was dis-closed between PD and time,when assessing the temporal trend of V/G separately for the guild of plants and pollinators we observed an asymmetric structure of interactions.Pollination interactions showed to be asymmetric throughout the flowering season;how-ever,evenness of interactions and network selectiveness showed significant positive relationships with time,revealing a poorer net-work of interactions during the end of the flowering season.The temporal analysis of pollination interactions revealed a stronger risk of secondary extinctions at the end of the flowering season,due to a lower degree of redundancy and thus of resilience of the overall network of interactions.