Results/Conclusions The dynamics of one species can be strongly affected by environmental stochasticity acting not only on itself, but also on other species with which it interacts. By fully accounting for the effects of stochasticity on populations embedded in a community, our approach gives better estimates of community dimension than commonly used methods. Using a combination of time series data and simulations, we have found that failing to properly account for stochasticity when attempting to relate population dynamics to attributes of the community can lead to conclusions that are significantly flawed.