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.