Bonnaffé, W. orcid.org/0000-0002-5053-8891, Danet, A., Leclerc, C. orcid.org/0000-0001-5830-1787 et al. (3 more authors) (2024) The interaction between warming and enrichment accelerates food‐web simplification in freshwater systems. Ecology Letters, 27 (8). e14480. ISSN 1461-023X
Abstract
Nutrient enrichment and climate warming threaten freshwater systems. Metabolic theory and the paradox of enrichment predict that both stressors independently can lead to simpler food-webs having fewer nodes, shorter food-chains and lower connectance, but cancel each other's effects when simultaneously present. Yet, these theoretical predictions remain untested in complex natural systems. We inferred the food-web structure of 256 lakes and 373 streams from standardized fish community samplings in France. Contrary to theoretical predictions, we found that warming shortens fish food-chain length and that this effect was magnified in enriched streams and lakes. Additionally, lakes experiencing enrichment exhibit lower connectance in their fish food-webs. Our study suggests that warming and enrichment interact to magnify food-web simplification in nature, raising further concerns about the fate of freshwater systems as climate change effects will dramatically increase in the coming decades.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | biochemical oxygen demand; connectance; fish; lake; maximum trophic level; stream; trophic interaction |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 07 Aug 2024 15:42 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 15:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/ele.14480 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:215724 |