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Community ecology

The hidden tempo of ecological communities

Nature Reviews Biodiversity volume 2, page 7 (2026)Cite this article

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In nature, biotic and abiotic factors interact in complex ways to shape communities. Since Darwin, ecologists have recognized that community dynamics are not static but evolve continuously. However, measuring this temporal rhythm and capturing how fast communities change over time and space remains a major challenge. Quantifying this change would reveal generality in temporal patterns and establish stronger baselines to detect ecological shifts. A 2021 study by Ontiveros and colleagues had precisely this aim. The authors introduced an elegant and intuitive concept: the characteristic time (Tc), a measure of the intrinsic rate at which a community renews itself. Their work demonstrates that, despite the massive diversity of habitats and organisms, many communities exhibit comparable patterns of temporal change, and reveals hidden regularities that structure ecological dynamics.

To explore this idea, the authors analysed presence–absence time series from 16 species assemblages, which ranged from microorganisms to vertebrates and encompassed a diverse array of ecosystems. Instead of modelling every ecological interaction in the assemblage, they applied a simple stochastic framework inspired by the island biogeography theory, focusing only on colonization and extinction rates. From these parameters, Ontiveros and colleagues derived the Tc and the relative sampling frequency (vs) for each community. The vs compares how often a system is sampled with how quickly it naturally changes.

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References

Original article

  • Ontiveros, V. J., Capitán, J. A., Casamayor, E. O. & Alonso, D. The characteristic time of ecological communities. Ecology 102, e03247 (2021)

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Related article

  • Diamond, J. M. & May, R. M. Species turnover rates on islands: dependence on census interval. Science 197, 266–270 (1977)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences de la forêt tempérée, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

    Ntsoa Rakoto Razafimahefa

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  1. Ntsoa Rakoto Razafimahefa
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Correspondence to Ntsoa Rakoto Razafimahefa.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Razafimahefa, N.R. The hidden tempo of ecological communities. Nat. Rev. Biodivers. 2, 7 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00121-1

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