scholarly journals Persistence and stability of interacting species in response to climate warming: The role of trophic structure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taranjot Kaur ◽  
Partha Sharathi Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Food Chain ◽  
Trophic Structure ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Threshold Temperature ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Interacting Species ◽  
Species Dynamics

AbstractOver the past century, the Earth has experienced roughly 0.4–0.8°C rise in the average temperature and which is projected to increase between 1.4–5.8°C by the year 2100. The increase in the Earth’s temperature directly influences physiological traits of individual species in ecosystems. However, the effect of these changes in community dynamics, so far, remains relatively unknown. Here we show that the consequences of warming (i.e., increase in the global mean temperature) on the interacting species persistence or extinction are correlated with their trophic complexity and community structure. In particular, we investigate different nonlinear bioenergetic tri-trophic food web modules, commonly observed in nature, in the order of increasing trophic complexity; a food chain, a diamond food web and an omnivorous interaction. We find that at low temperatures, warming can destabilize the species dynamics in the food chain as well as the diamond food web, but it has no such effect on the trophic structure that involves omnivory. In the diamond food web, our results indicate that warming does not support top-down control induced co-existence of intermediate species. However, in all the trophic structures warming can destabilize species up to a threshold temperature. Beyond the threshold temperature, warming stabilizes species dynamics at the cost of the extinction of higher trophic species. We demonstrate the robustness of our results when a few system parameters are varied together with the temperature. Overall, our study suggests that variations in the trophic complexity of simple food web modules can influence the effects of climate warming on species dynamics.

scholarly journals Coral reefs in crisis: The reliability of deep-time food web reconstructions as analogs for the present

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Roopnarine ◽  
Ashley A. Dineen
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Change ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Web Studies ◽  
Dietary Breadth ◽  
Caribbean Coral Reef

AbstractOngoing anthropogenic alterations of the biosphere have shifted emphasis in conservation biology from individual species to entire ecosystems. Modern measures of ecosystem change, however, lack the extended temporal scales necessary to forecast future change under increasingly stressful environmental conditions. Accordingly, the assessment and reconstruction of ecosystem dynamics during previous intervals of environmental stress and climate change in deep time has garnered increasing attention. The nature of the fossil record, though, raises questions about the difficulty of reconstructing paleocommunity and paleoecosystem-level dynamics. In this study, we assess the reliability of such reconstructions by simulating the fossilization of a highly threatened and disturbed modern ecosystem, a Caribbean coral reef. Using a high-resolution coral reef food web from Jamaica, we compare system structures of the modern and simulated fossil reefs, including guild richness and evenness, trophic level distribution, predator dietary breadth, food chain lengths, and modularity. Results indicate that despite the loss of species, guilds, and trophospecies interactions, particularly zooplankton and other soft-bodied organisms, the overall guild diversity, structure, and modularity of the reef ecosystem remained intact. These results have important implications for the integrity of fossil food web studies and coral reef conservation, demonstrating that fossil reef communities can be used to understand reef community dynamics during past regimes of environmental change.

scholarly journals δ13C values of wood and Charcoal Reveal Broad Isotopic ranges at the base of the Food Web

Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 2003-2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bente Philippsen ◽  
Jesper Olsen ◽  
Søren A Sørensen ◽  
Bjørnar Måge
Keyword(s):  
Time Dependence ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Food Chain ◽  
Species Range ◽  
Small Study ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Δ13c Values ◽  
The Mean ◽  
High Degree

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to investigate the range, the degree of variability, and a possible time or species dependence of wood and charcoal δ13C values within one small study area. To achieve this, we used δ13C and 14C determinations of more than 400 archaeological samples from a ca. 300 ha area in Denmark, spanning 5000 years and covering several different species. The δ13C values of the wood and charcoal range from −32.8‰ to −21.2‰. We found no time-dependence of wood and charcoal δ13C values, neither in general nor within one species. The mean δ13C of all wood samples is −28.5‰, while the means of individual species range from −30.6‰ to −26.3‰. The mean of all charcoal samples is −25.7‰, with the means of individual species ranging from −28.1‰ to −24.3‰. The wood δ13C values can be used to infer the possible range of plant δ13C values, which otherwise are not available. They imply that a high degree of variability can be expected at the base of the food chain. This is relevant for palaeodietary studies that rely on the measurement of baseline isotope values.

Persistence and Stability of a Food Chain Model with Mixed Selection of Functional Responses

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Maiti ◽  
B. Patra ◽  
G. P. Samanta
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Functional Response ◽  
Food Chain ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Chain Model ◽  
Functional Responses ◽  
Interacting Species ◽  
Important Object ◽  
Food Chain Model ◽  
Selection Of

One approach to the study of an ecological community begins with an important object: its food web. Theoretical studies of food web must contend with the question of how to couple the large number of interacting species. One line of investigation assumes that the “building blocks” are species interacting in a pairwise fashion. The model we analyze in this paper describes a tritrophic food chain composed of logistic prey, a classical Lotka-Volterra functional response for prey and predator, and a Holling type-II functional response for predator and superpredator. Dynamical behaviours such as boundedness, stability, persistence, bifurcation et cetera of the model are studied critically. Computer simulations are carried out to explain the analytical findings. Finally it is discussed how these ideas illuminate some of the observed properties of real populations in the field, and explores practical implications.

scholarly journals Food Web Structure and Trophic Interactions Revealed by Stable Isotope Analysis in the Midstream of the Chishui River, a Tributary of the Yangtze River, China

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Qiang Qin ◽  
Fubin Zhang ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
Chunling Wang ◽  
Huanzhang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Carbon Source ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Food Chain ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Trophic Niche ◽  
The Yangtze River ◽  
Food Chain Length ◽  
Trophic Pathways ◽  
Chishui River

Understanding energy flow and nutrient pathways is crucial to reveal the dynamics and functions of riverine ecosystems and develop appropriate conservation strategies. In this study, we utilized stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N to examine the fundamental characteristics of trophic position, trophic niche, and carbon source for the food web in the midstream of the Chishui River, a tributary to the Yangtze River. Our results showed that stable isotope signatures among different sorts of basal resources and consumers were significantly distinguishable and that the food chain consisted of four trophic levels, indicating the multiple trophic pathways and long food chain length here. The trophic guilds of fish were classified into four categories, in which herbivorous and carnivorous fish showed greater trophic diversity and omnivorous fish had higher trophic redundancy, which meant that there was a stable trophic niche structure in the study area. Phytoplankton and periphyton presented the largest contributions to consumers, indicating that autochthonous productivity was the dominant carbon source in the midstream of the Chishui River. Since the Chishui River is still in a natural condition without any dam constructions, the autochthonous productivity, stable trophic niche structure, multiple trophic pathways and long food chain length found here demonstrate its high conservation value. Therefore, the strategy to refrain from damming on this river should persist into the future.

Land conversion regulates the effects of long-term climate warming on soil micro-food web communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 314 ◽  
pp. 107426
Author(s):  
Pingting Guan ◽  
Mohammad Mahamood ◽  
Yurong Yang ◽  
Donghui Wu
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Web Communities

scholarly journals Upstream trophic structure modulates downstream community dynamics via resource subsidies

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (15) ◽  
pp. 5724-5731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Harvey ◽  
Isabelle Gounand ◽  
Chelsea J. Little ◽  
Emanuel A. Fronhofer ◽  
Florian Altermatt
Keyword(s):  
Trophic Structure ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Resource Subsidies

scholarly journals Food-web modification in the eastern Gulf of Finland after invasion of Marenzelleria arctia (Spionidae, Polychaeta)

NeoBiota ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Sergey Golubkov ◽  
Alexei Tiunov ◽  
Mikhail Golubkov
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Food Chain ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Benthivorous Fish ◽  
Neva Estuary ◽  
The Baltic

The paucity of data on non-indigenous marine species is a particular challenge for understanding the ecology of invasions and prioritising conservation and research efforts in marine ecosystems. Marenzelleria spp. are amongst the most successful non-native benthic species in the Baltic Sea during recent decades. We used stable isotope analysis (SIA) to test the hypothesis that the dominance of polychaete worm Marenzelleria arctia in the zoobenthos of the Neva Estuary after its invasion in the late 2000s is related to the position of this species in the benthic food webs. The trend towards a gradual decrease in the biomass of Marenzelleria worms was observed during 2014–2020, probably due to significant negative relationships between the biomass of oligochaetes and polychaetes, both of which, according to SIA, primarily use allochthonous organic carbon for their production. The biomass of benthic crustaceans practically did not change and remained very low. The SIA showed that, in contrast to the native crustacean Monoporeia affinis, polychates are practically not consumed either by the main invertebrate predator Saduria entomon, which preys on M. affinis, oligochaetes and larvae of chironomids or by benthivorous fish that prefer native benthic crustaceans. A hypothetical model for the position and functional role of M. arctia in the bottom food web is presented and discussed. According the model, the invasion of M. arctia has created an offshoot food chain in the Estuary food webs. The former dominant food webs, associated with native crustaceans, are now poorly developed. The lack of top-down control obviously contributes to the significant development of the Marenzelleria food chain, which, unlike native food chains, does not provide energy transfer from autochthonous and allochthonous organic matter to the upper trophic levels. The study showed that an alien species, without displacing native species, can significantly change the structure of food webs, creating blind offshoots of the food chain.

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