J 2024

Understanding temporal variability across trophic levels and spatial scales in freshwater ecosystems

SIQUEIRA, Tadeu, Charles P. HAWKINS, Julian D. OLDEN, Jonathan TONKIN, Lise COMTE et. al.

Basic information

Original name

Understanding temporal variability across trophic levels and spatial scales in freshwater ecosystems

Authors

SIQUEIRA, Tadeu (guarantor), Charles P. HAWKINS, Julian D. OLDEN, Jonathan TONKIN, Lise COMTE, Victor S. SAITO, Thomas L. ANDERSON, Gedimar P. BARBOSA, Nuria BONADA, Claudia C. BONECKER, Miguel CANEDO-ARGUEELLES, Thibault DATRY, Michael B. FLINN, Pau FORTUNO, Gretchen A. GERRISH, Peter HAASE, Matthew J. HILL, James M. HOOD, Kaisa-Leena HUTTUNEN, Michael J. JEFFRIES, Timo MUOTKA, Daniel R. DONNELL, Riku PAAVOLA, Petr PAŘIL (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Michael J. PATERSON, Christopher J. PATRICK, Gilmar PERBICHE-NEVES, Luzia C. RODRIGUES, Susanne C. SCHNEIDER, Michal STRAKA (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution) and Albert RUHI

Edition

Ecology, HOBOKEN, Ecological Society of America, 2024, 0012-9658

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

10511 Environmental sciences

Country of publisher

United States of America

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Impact factor

Impact factor: 4.800 in 2022

Organization unit

Faculty of Science

UT WoS

001126444300001

Keywords in English

community synchrony; compensatory dynamics; international long-term ecological research (ILTER); metacommunities; mobile consumers; Moran effect; portfolio effect; temporal variability

Tags

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 18/3/2024 17:13, Mgr. Marie Šípková, DiS.

Abstract

V originále

A tenet of ecology is that temporal variability in ecological structure and processes tends to decrease with increasing spatial scales (from locales to regions) and levels of biological organization (from populations to communities). However, patterns in temporal variability across trophic levels and the mechanisms that produce them remain poorly understood. Here we analyzed the abundance time series of spatially structured communities (i.e., metacommunities) spanning basal resources to top predators from 355 freshwater sites across three continents. Specifically, we used a hierarchical partitioning method to disentangle the propagation of temporal variability in abundance across spatial scales and trophic levels. We then used structural equation modeling to determine if the strength and direction of relationships between temporal variability, synchrony, biodiversity, and environmental and spatial settings depended on trophic level and spatial scale. We found that temporal variability in abundance decreased from producers to tertiary consumers but did so mainly at the local scale. Species population synchrony within sites increased with trophic level, whereas synchrony among communities decreased. At the local scale, temporal variability in precipitation and species diversity were associated with population variability (linear partial coefficient, beta = 0.23) and population synchrony (beta = -0.39) similarly across trophic levels, respectively. At the regional scale, community synchrony was not related to climatic or spatial predictors, but the strength of relationships between metacommunity variability and community synchrony decreased systematically from top predators (beta = 0.73) to secondary consumers (beta = 0.54), to primary consumers (beta = 0.30) to producers (beta = 0). Our results suggest that mobile predators may often stabilize metacommunities by buffering variability that originates at the base of food webs. This finding illustrates that the trophic structure of metacommunities, which integrates variation in organismal body size and its correlates, should be considered when investigating ecological stability in natural systems. More broadly, our work advances the notion that temporal stability is an emergent property of ecosystems that may be threatened in complex ways by biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation.

Links

GA23-05268S, research and development project
Name: Souvislost mezi oteplováním klimatu a rostoucí druhovou bohatostí bezobratlých v tekoucích vodách: od historických dat po experimenty
Investor: Czech Science Foundation, Linking climate warming to increasing invertebrate species richness in running waters: from historical data to experiments