Prediction of Intrinsic Ecosystem Constituents and Properties
Separating individual (Figure 1E, e.g., biotic or abiotic features – Table S1) and shared (Figure 1F, i.e., two or more ecosystem features) responses provides a means to predict both intra- and inter-ecosystem patterns. This approach also improves understanding of commonalities, potential interactions, and properties (e.g., traits) among those biotic and abiotic variables characterizing specific ecosystems or sites. Joint distribution models, such as Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities (HMSC), assume that responses to environmental circumstances are shared; as such, these models are structured to predict both individual and joint responses among test variables (Ovaskainen and Abrego 2020). Furthermore, HMSC is specifically designed so models of individual response variables are statistically connected, so that information from lower-order (i.e., individual biota and abiotic features) predictions informs higher-order (i.e., aggregate) predictions.