On the prevalence and dynamics of inverted trophic pyramids and otherwise top-heavy communities

Environmental gradient changes shape multi-scale food web structures: Impact on antibiotics trophic transfer in a lake ecosystem

Environmental change can alter the multi-scale foodweb structure, thereby impacting the pollutants trophic transfer in aquatic ecosystems. However, a quantitative understanding of how environmental gradient changes affect pollutant trophic transfer in natural lake ecosystems remains limited. This study investigated temporal variations in environment change index (ECi), multi-scale foodweb structure, and trophic transfer of quinolones antibiotics (QNs) in Baiyangdian Lake, Northern China, from 2018 to 2023. Our results demonstrated that the interaction strength (IS) in detritus (DIS) and macrophyte (MIS) in 2023 were significantly lower than those in 2018, and diversity indices exhibited significant temporal differences between 2018 and 2023. ECi was significantly correlated with DIS/MIS between species at the population scale and with diversity indices (DH and H') at the ecosystem scale. The trophic magnification factors (TMFs) of QNs have higher values in 2023 compared to 2018, showing significant temporal differences. Through structural equation model, the results showed ECi directly impacted DIS, which in turn affected SEAc and H', while indirectly influencing TMFs. The TMFs of QNs was mainly regulated by environmental factors. These findings highlighted the influencing mechanism through multi-scale foodweb structures regulate pollutant trophic transfer under environmental change in natural lake.

Shallow seamounts are "oases" and activity hubs for pelagic predators in a large-scale marine reserve

Seamounts have been likened to "oases" of life in the comparative deserts of the open ocean, often harbouring high densities of threatened and exploited pelagic top predators. However, few such aggregations have been studied in any detail and the mechanisms that sustain them are poorly understood. Here, we present the findings of an integrated study of 3 previously unexplored seamounts in the tropical Atlantic, which aimed to investigate their significance as predator "hotspots" and inform their inclusion in one of world's largest marine reserves. Baited underwater video and visual census transects revealed enhanced diversity and biomass of pelagic top predators, including elevated abundances of 7 species of sharks, predatory fish, and seabirds, within 5 km of 2 shallow seamounts (<100 m), but not a third deeper seamount (260 m). Hydroacoustic biomass of low- and mid-trophic level "prey" was also significantly elevated within 2.5 km of shallow seamounts. However, we found no evidence of enhanced primary productivity over any feature, suggesting high faunal biomass is sustained by exogenous energy inputs. Relative biomass enrichment also increased with trophic level, ranging from a 2-fold increase for zooplankton to a 41-fold increase for sharks. Tracking of the dominant predator species revealed that individual sharks (Galapagos, silky) and tuna (yellowfin, bigeye) often resided around seamounts for months to years, with evidence of connectivity between features, and (in the case of sharks) were spatially aggregated in localised hotspots that coincided with areas of high mid-trophic biomass. However, tuna and silky sharks also appeared to use seamounts as "hubs" in more extensive pelagic foraging ranges, which may help explain disproportionately high predator density. Our results reinforce the conservation significance of shallow seamounts for many marine top predators and offer fundamental insights into their functional roles as both prey "oases" and activity hubs for these species.

Energy transfer efficiency rather than productivity determines the strength of aquatic trophic cascades

Trophic cascades are important determinants of food web dynamics and functioning, yet mechanisms accounting for variation in trophic cascade strength remain elusive. Here, we used food chain models and a mesocosm experiment (phytoplankton-zooplankton-shrimp) to disentangle the relative importance of two energetic processes driving trophic cascades: primary productivity and energy transfer efficiency. Food chain models predicted that the strength of trophic cascades was increased as the energy transfer efficiency between herbivore and predator (predator efficiency) increased, while its relationship with primary productivity was relatively weak. These model predictions were confirmed by a mesocosm experiment, which showed that the strength of trophic cascade increased with predator efficiency but remained unaffected by nutrient supply rate or primary productivity. Combined, our results indicate that the efficiency of energy transfer along the food chain, rather than the total amount of energy fixed by primary producers, determines the strength of trophic cascades. Our study provides an integrative perspective to reconcile energetic and population dynamics in food webs, which has implications for both ecological research and ecosystem management.

Understanding diversity-synchrony-stability relationships in multitrophic communities

Understanding how species loss impacts ecosystem stability is critical given contemporary declines in global biodiversity. Despite decades of research on biodiversity-stability relationships, most studies are performed within a trophic level, overlooking the multitrophic complexity structuring natural communities. Here, in a global analysis of diversity-synchrony-stability (DSS) studies (n = 420), we found that 74% were monotrophic and biased towards terrestrial plant communities, with 91% describing stabilizing effects of asynchrony. Multitrophic studies (26%) were representative of all biomes and showed that synchrony had mixed effects on stability. To explore potential mechanisms, we applied a multitrophic framework adapted from DSS theory to investigate DSS relationships in algae-herbivore assemblages across five long-term tropical and temperate marine system datasets. Both algal and herbivore species diversity reduced within-group synchrony in both systems but had different interactive effects on species synchrony between systems. Herbivore synchrony was positively and negatively influenced by algal diversity in tropical versus temperate systems, respectively, and algal synchrony was positively influenced by herbivore diversity in temperate systems. While herbivore synchrony reduced multitrophic stability in both systems, algal synchrony only reduced stability in tropical systems. These results highlight the complexity of DSS relationships at the multitrophic level and emphasize why more multitrophic assessments are needed to better understand how biodiversity influences community stability in nature.

Effects of protection and temperature variation on temporal stability in a marine reserve network

Understanding the drivers of ecosystem stability has been a key focus of modern ecology as the impacts of the Anthropocene become more prevalent and extreme. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are tools used globally to promote biodiversity and mediate anthropogenic impacts. However, assessing the stability of natural ecosystems and responses to management actions is inherently challenging due to the complex dynamics of communities with many interdependent taxa. Using a 12-year time series of subtidal community structure in an MPA network in the Channel Islands (United States), we estimated species interaction strength (competition and predation), prey species synchrony, and temporal stability in trophic networks, as well as temporal variation in sea surface temperature to explore the causal drivers of temporal stability at community and metacommunity scales. At the community scale, only trophic networks in MPAs at Santa Rosa Island showed greater temporal stability than reference sites, likely driven by reduced prey synchrony. Across islands, competition was sometimes greater and predation always greater in MPAs compared with reference sites. Increases in interaction strength resulted in lower temporal stability of trophic networks. Although MPAs reduced prey synchrony at the metacommunity scale, reductions were insufficient to stabilize trophic networks. In contrast, temporal variation in sea surface temperature had strong positive direct effects on stability at the regional scale and indirect effects at the local scale through reductions in species interaction strength. Although MPAs can be effective management strategies for protecting certain species or locations, our findings for this MPA network suggest that temperature variation has a stronger influence on metacommunity temporal stability by mediating species interactions and promoting a mosaic of spatiotemporal variation in community structure of trophic networks. By capturing the full spectrum of environmental variation in network planning, MPAs will have the greatest capacity to promote ecosystem stability in response to climate change.

Body size and trophic structure explain global asymmetric response of tetrapod diversity to climate effects

Although climate-based hypotheses are widely used to explain large-scale diversity patterns, they fall short of explaining the spatial variation among taxonomic groups. Integrating food web and metabolic theories into macroecology is a promising step forward, as they allow including explicit taxon-specific traits that can potentially mediate the relationship between climate and diversity. Our investigation focuses on the role of body size and trophic structure in mediating the influence of contemporary climate and historical climate change on global tetrapods species richness. We used piecewise structural equation modeling to assess the direct effects of contemporary climate and climate instability of species richness and the indirect effects of climate on tetrapod richness mediated by community-wide species traits. We found that birds and mammals are less sensitive to the direct effect of contemporary climate than amphibians and squamates. Contemporary climate and climate instability favored the species richness of mammals and amphibians. However, for birds and squamates, this link is only associated with contemporary climate. Moreover, we showed that community-wide traits are correlated with species richness gradients. However, we highlight that this relationship is dependent upon the specific traits and taxonomic groups. Specifically, bird communities with smaller bodies and bottom-heavy structures support higher species richness. Squamates also tend to be more diverse in communities with prevalence of smaller bodies, while mammals are correlated with top-heavy structures. Moreover, we showed that higher contemporary climate and climate instability reduce the species richness of birds and mammals through community-wide traits and indirectly increase squamate species richness. We also showed that body size and trophic structure are driving a global asymmetric response of tetrapod diversity to climate effects, which highlights the limitation to use the "typical" climate-based hypotheses. Furthermore, by combining multiple theories, our research contributes to a more realistic and mechanistic understanding of diversity patterns across taxonomic groups.

Body size and trophic position determine the outcomes of species invasions along temperature and productivity gradients

Species invasions are predicted to increase in frequency with global change, but quantitative predictions of how environmental filters and species traits influence the success and consequences of invasions for local communities are lacking. Here we investigate how invaders alter the structure, diversity and stability regime of simple communities across environmental gradients (habitat productivity, temperature) and community size structure. We simulate all three-species trophic modules (apparent and exploitative competition, trophic chain and intraguild predation). We predict that invasions most often succeed in warm and productive habitats and that successful invaders include smaller competitors, intraguild predators and comparatively small top predators. This suggests that species invasions and global change may facilitate the downsizing of food webs. Furthermore, we show that successful invasions leading to species substitutions rarely alter system stability, while invasions leading to increased diversity can destabilize or stabilize community dynamics depending on the environmental conditions and invader's trophic position.

Food web structure for high carbon retention in marine plankton communities

Total annual net primary productions in marine and terrestrial ecosystems are similar. However, a large portion of the newly produced marine phytoplankton biomass is converted to carbon dioxide because of predation. Which food web structure retains high carbon biomass in the plankton community in the global ocean? In 6954 individual samples or locations containing phytoplankton, unicellular protozooplankton, and multicellular metazooplankton in the global ocean, phytoplankton-dominated bottom-heavy pyramids held higher carbon biomass than protozooplankton-dominated middle-heavy diamonds or metazooplankton-dominated top-heavy inverted pyramids. Bottom-heavy pyramids predominated, but the high predation impact by protozooplankton on phytoplankton or the vertical migration of metazooplankton temporarily changed bottom-heavy pyramids to middle-heavy diamonds or top-heavy inverted pyramids but returned to bottom-heavy pyramids shortly. This finding has profound implications for carbon retention by plankton communities in the global ocean.

DNA metabarcoding of cloacal swabs provides insight into diets of highly migratory sharks in the Mid-Atlantic Bight

The abundances of migratory shark species observed throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) during productive summer months suggest that this region provides critical habitat and prey resources to these taxa. However, the principal prey assemblages sustaining migratory shark biomass in this region are poorly defined. We applied high-throughput DNA metabarcoding to shark feces derived from cloacal swabs across nine species of Carcharhinid and Lamnid sharks to (1) quantify the contribution of broad taxa (e.g., invertebrates, fishes) supporting shark biomass during seasonal residency in the MAB and (2) determine whether the species displayed distinct dietary preference indicative of resource partitioning. DNA metabarcoding resulted in high taxonomic (species-level) resolution of shark diets with actinopterygian and elasmobranch fishes as the dominant prey categories across the species. DNA metabarcoding identified several key prey groups consistent across shark taxa that are likely integral for sustaining their biomass in this region, including Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), and benthic elasmobranchs, including skates. Our results are consistent with previously published stomach content data for the shark species of similar size range in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, supporting the efficacy of cloacal swab DNA metabarcoding as a minimally invasive diet reconstruction technique. The high reliance of several shark species on Atlantic menhaden could imply wasp-waist food-web conditions during the summer months, whereby high abundances of forage fishes sustain a diverse suite of migratory sharks within a complex, seasonal food web.

Protection promotes energetically efficient structures in marine communities

The sustainability of marine communities is critical for supporting many biophysical processes that provide ecosystem services that promote human well-being. It is expected that anthropogenic disturbances such as climate change and human activities will tend to create less energetically-efficient ecosystems that support less biomass per unit energy flow. It is debated, however, whether this expected development should translate into bottom-heavy (with small basal species being the most abundant) or top-heavy communities (where more biomass is supported at higher trophic levels with species having larger body sizes). Here, we combine ecological theory and empirical data to demonstrate that full marine protection promotes shifts towards top-heavy energetically-efficient structures in marine communities. First, we use metabolic scaling theory to show that protected communities are expected to display stronger top-heavy structures than disturbed communities. Similarly, we show theoretically that communities with high energy transfer efficiency display stronger top-heavy structures than communities with low transfer efficiency. Next, we use empirical structures observed within fully protected marine areas compared to disturbed areas that vary in stress from thermal events and adjacent human activity. Using a nonparametric causal-inference analysis, we find a strong, positive, causal effect between full marine protection and stronger top-heavy structures. Our work corroborates ecological theory on community development and provides a quantitative framework to study the potential restorative effects of different candidate strategies on protected areas.

A global ecological signal of extinction risk in marine ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii)

Many marine fish species are experiencing population declines, but their extinction risk profiles are largely understudied in comparison to their terrestrial vertebrate counterparts. Selective extinction of marine fish species may result in rapid alteration of the structure and function of ocean ecosystems. In this study, we compiled an ecological trait dataset for 8,185 species of marine ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii) from FishBase and used phylogenetic generalized linear models to examine which ecological traits are associated with increased extinction risk, based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. We also assessed which threat types may be driving these species toward greater extinction risk and whether threatened species face a greater average number of threat types than non-threatened species. We found that larger body size and/or fishes with life histories involving movement between marine, brackish, and freshwater environments are associated with elevated extinction risk. Commercial harvesting threatens the greatest number of species, followed by pollution, development, and then climate change. We also found that threatened species, on average, face a significantly greater number of threat types than non-threatened species. These results can be used by resource managers to help address the heightened extinction risk patterns we found.

Stable diverse food webs become more common when interactions are more biologically constrained

Ecologists have long sought to understand how diversity and structure mediate the stability of whole ecosystems. For high-diversity food webs, the interactions between species are typically represented using matrices with randomly chosen interaction strengths. Unfortunately, this procedure tends to produce ecological systems with no underlying equilibrium solution, and so ecological inferences from this approach may be biased by nonbiological outcomes. Using recent computationally efficient methodological advances from metabolic networks, we employ for the first time an inverse approach to diversity-stability research. We compare classical random interaction matrices of realistic food web topology (hereafter the classical model) to feasible, biologically constrained, webs produced using the inverse approach. We show that an energetically constrained feasible model yields a far higher proportion of stable high-diversity webs than the classical random matrix approach. When we examine the energetically constrained interaction strength distributions of these matrix models, we find that although these diverse webs have consistent negative self-regulation, they do not require strong self-regulation to persist. These energetically constrained diverse webs instead show an increasing preponderance of weak interactions that are known to increase local stability. Further examination shows that some of these weak interactions naturally appear to arise in the model food webs from a constraint-generated realistic generalist-specialist trade-off, whereby generalist predators have weaker interactions than more specialized species. Additionally, the inverse technique we present here has enormous promise for understanding the role of the biological structure behind stable high-diversity webs and for linking empirical data to the theory.

Multifunctional redundancy: Impossible or undetected?

The diversity-functioning relationship is a pillar of ecology. Two significant concepts have emerged from this relationship: redundancy, the asymptotic relationship between diversity and functioning, and multifunctionality, a monotonic relationship between diversity and multiple functions occurring simultaneously. However, multifunctional redundancy, an asymptotic relationship between diversity and multiple functions occurring simultaneously, is rarely detected in research. Here we assess whether this lack of detection is due to its true rarity, or due to systematic research error. We discuss how inconsistencies in the use of terms such as 'function' lead to mismatched research. We consider the different techniques used to calculate multifunctionality and point out a rarely considered issue: how determining a function's maximum rate affects multifunctionality metrics. Lastly, we critique how a lack of consideration of multitrophic, spatiotemporal, interactions and community assembly processes in designed experiments significantly reduces the likelihood of detecting multifunctional redundancy. Multifunctionality research up to this stage has made significant contributions to our understanding of the diversity-functioning relationship, and we believe that multifunctional redundancy is detectable with the use of appropriate methodologies.

Consumers decrease variability across space and turnover through time during coral reef succession

Consumers play an integral role in mediating ecological succession-the change in community composition over time. As consumer populations are facing rapid decline in ecosystems around the world, understanding of their ecological role is becoming increasingly urgent. Increased understanding of how changes in consumer populations may influence community variability across space and turnover through time during succession is particularly important for coral reefs, which are among the most threatened ecosystems globally, and where fishes play vital roles in structuring benthic succession. Here, we examine how consumers influence coral reef succession by deploying 180 paired settlement tiles, caged (to exclude fishes larger than approximately 15 cm) and uncaged, within Palmyra Atoll, a remote marine wildlife refuge with previously documented high fish abundance, and monitored benthic community development one and three years after deployment. We found that excluding large fishes lead to lower alpha diversity and divergent community states across space (i.e.,, high beta diversity among caged tiles), suggesting that benthic fish feeding maintains local diversity but tends to homogenize community composition with dominance by crustose coralline algae. In addition, when fish were experimentally excluded, the developing benthic community exhibited a greater change in species composition over time (i.e., high temporal beta diversity), indicating that fish feeding tends to canalize community successional trajectories. Finally, the caged and uncaged tiles became more similar over time, suggesting that fish feeding plays a more important role during early succession. Our results demonstrate that the loss of large fishes, for example from overfishing, may result in benthic communities that are more variable across space and time. Increased variability could have important implications for ecosystem function and coral reef resilience in the face of escalating global stressors.

Viral predation pressure on coral reefs

BACKGROUND

Predation pressure and herbivory exert cascading effects on coral reef health and stability. However, the extent of these cascading effects can vary considerably across space and time. This variability is likely a result of the complex interactions between coral reefs' biotic and abiotic dimensions. A major biological component that has been poorly integrated into the reefs' trophic studies is the microbial community, despite its role in coral death and bleaching susceptibility. Viruses that infect bacteria can control microbial densities and may positively affect coral health by controlling microbialization. We hypothesize that viral predation of bacteria has analogous effects to the top-down pressure of macroorganisms on the trophic structure and reef health.

RESULTS

Here, we investigated the relationships between live coral cover and viruses, bacteria, benthic algae, fish biomass, and water chemistry in 110 reefs spanning inhabited and uninhabited islands and atolls across the Pacific Ocean. Statistical learning showed that the abundance of turf algae, viruses, and bacteria, in that order, were the variables best predicting the variance in coral cover. While fish biomass was not a strong predictor of coral cover, the relationship between fish and corals became apparent when analyzed in the context of viral predation: high coral cover (> 50%) occurred on reefs with a combination of high predator fish biomass (sum of sharks and piscivores > 200 g m^-2) and high virus-to-bacteria ratios (> 10), an indicator of viral predation pressure. However, these relationships were non-linear, with reefs at the higher and lower ends of the coral cover continuum displaying a narrow combination of abiotic and biotic variables, while reefs at intermediate coral cover showed a wider range of parameter combinations.

CONCLUSIONS

The results presented here support the hypothesis that viral predation of bacteria is associated with high coral cover and, thus, coral health and stability. We propose that combined predation pressures from fishes and viruses control energy fluxes, inhibiting the detrimental accumulation of ecosystem energy in the microbial food web.

Managing aquatic habitat structure for resilient trophic interactions

Structural habitat (the three-dimensional arrangement of physical matter, abiotic and biotic, at a location) is a foundational element for the resilience and maintenance of biodiversity, yet anthropogenic development is driving the global simplification of aquatic environments. Resource managers regularly seek to conserve aquatic food webs by increasing structural habitat complexity with expected benefits to fisheries; however, the global effectiveness of such actions is unclear. Our synthesis and theoretical analyses found that the response of a consumer-resource interaction (predatory sportfish and forage fish prey) to the addition of prey refuge habitat differed among systems with low and high rates of biomass transfer from resource to consumer (i.e., biomass potential); stabilization was not the rule. Greater prey refuge habitat availability tended to stabilize systems characterized by high biomass potential while simultaneously increasing consumer densities. In contrast, increasing prey refuge habitat availability in systems characterized by low biomass potential tended to mute energy transfer and moved consumer densities toward local extinction. Importantly, biomass potential and prey refuge can have antagonistic effects on stability and relative consumer densities, and it is therefore important to consider the local conditions of a system when using habitat manipulation as a management measure. Further development of our context-dependent perspective to whole food webs, and across different environments, may help to guide structural habitat management to better restore and protect aquatic ecosystems.

Linear scaling between microbial predator and prey densities in the global ocean

It has been proposed that microbial predator and prey densities are related through sublinear power laws. We revisited previously published biomass and abundance data and fitted Power-law Biomass Scaling Relationships (PBSRs) between marine microzooplankton predators (Z) and phytoplankton prey (P), and marine viral predators (V) and bacterial prey (B). We analysed them assuming an error structure given by Type II regression models which, in contrast to the conventional Type I regression model, accounts for errors in both the independent and the dependent variables. We found that the data support linear relationships, in contrast to the sublinear relationships reported by previous authors. The scaling exponent yields an expected value of 1 with some spread in different datasets that was well-described with a Gaussian distribution. Our results suggest that the ratios Z/P, and V/B are on average invariant, in contrast to the hypothesis that they systematically decrease with increasing P and B, respectively, as previously thought.

Microbial Interactions with Dissolved Organic Matter Are Central to Coral Reef Ecosystem Function and Resilience

To thrive in nutrient-poor waters, coral reefs must retain and recycle materials efficiently. This review centers microbial processes in facilitating the persistence and stability of coral reefs, specifically the role of these processes in transforming and recycling the dissolved organic matter (DOM) that acts as an invisible currency in reef production, nutrient exchange, and organismal interactions. The defining characteristics of coral reefs, including high productivity, balanced metabolism, high biodiversity, nutrient retention, and structural complexity, are inextricably linked to microbial processing of DOM. The composition of microbes and DOM in reefs is summarized, and the spatial and temporal dynamics of biogeochemical processes carried out by microorganisms in diverse reef habitats are explored in a variety of key reef processes, including decomposition, accretion, trophictransfer, and macronutrient recycling. Finally, we examine how widespread habitat degradation of reefs is altering these important microbe-DOM interactions, creating feedbacks that reduce reef resilience to global change.

Consistent predator-prey biomass scaling in complex food webs

The ratio of predator-to-prey biomass is a key element of trophic structure that is typically investigated from a food chain perspective, ignoring channels of energy transfer (e.g. omnivory) that may govern community structure. Here, we address this shortcoming by characterising the biomass structure of 141 freshwater, marine and terrestrial food webs, spanning a broad gradient in community biomass. We test whether sub-linear scaling between predator and prey biomass (a potential signal of density-dependent processes) emerges within ecosystem types and across levels of biological organisation. We find a consistent, sub-linear scaling pattern whereby predator biomass scales with the total biomass of their prey with a near ¾-power exponent within food webs - i.e. more prey biomass supports proportionally less predator biomass. Across food webs, a similar sub-linear scaling pattern emerges between total predator biomass and the combined biomass of all prey within a food web. These general patterns in trophic structure are compatible with a systematic form of density dependence that holds among complex feeding interactions across levels of organization, irrespective of ecosystem type.

The ratio of predator-to-prey biomass is a key element in food webs. Here, the authors report a unified analysis of predator-prey biomass scaling in complex food webs, finding general patterns of sub-linear scaling across ecosystems and levels of organization.

Stoichiometric constraints modulate temperature and nutrient effects on biomass distribution and community stability

Temperature and nutrients are two of the most important drivers of global change. Both can modify the elemental composition (i.e. stoichiometry) of primary producers and consumers. Yet their combined effect on the stoichiometry, dynamics and stability of ecological communities remains largely unexplored. To fill this gap, we extended the Rosenzweig-MacArthur consumer-resource model by including thermal dependencies, nutrient dynamics and stoichiometric constraints on both the primary producer and the consumer. We found that stoichiometric and nutrient conservation constraints dampen the paradox of enrichment and increased persistence at high nutrient levels. Nevertheless, stoichiometric constraints also reduced consumer persistence at extreme temperatures. Finally, we also found that stoichiometric constraints and nutrient dynamics can strongly influence biomass distribution across trophic levels by modulating consumer assimilation efficiency and resource growth rates along the environmental gradients. In the Rosenzweig-MacArthur model, consumer biomass exceeded resource biomass for most parameter values whereas, in the stoichiometric model, consumer biomass was strongly reduced and sometimes lower than resource biomass. Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for stoichiometric constraints as they can mediate the temperature and nutrient impact on the dynamics and functioning of ecological communities.

Community size structure varies with predator-prey size relationships and temperature across Australian reefs

Climate change and fisheries exploitation are dramatically changing the abundances, species composition, and size spectra of fish communities. We explore whether variation in 'abundance size spectra', a widely studied ecosystem feature, is influenced by a parameter theorized to govern the shape of size-structured ecosystems-the relationship between the sizes of predators and their prey (predator-prey mass ratios, or PPMRs). PPMR estimates are lacking for avast number of fish species, including at the scale of trophic guilds. Using measurements of 8128 prey items in gut contents of 97 reef fish species, we established predator-prey mass ratios (PPMRs) for four major trophic guilds (piscivores, invertivores, planktivores, and herbivores) using linear mixed effects models. To assess the theoretical predictions that higher community-level PPMRs leads to shallower size spectrum slopes, we compared observations of both ecosystem metrics for ~15,000 coastal reef sites distributed around Australia. PPMRs of individual fishes were remarkably high (median ~71,000), with significant variation between different trophic guilds (~890 for piscivores; ~83,000 for planktivores), and ~8700 for whole communities. Community-level PPMRs were positively related to size spectrum slopes, broadly consistent with theory, however, this pattern was also influenced by the latitudinal temperature gradient. Tropical reefs showed a stronger relationship between community-level PPMRs and community size spectrum slopes than temperate reefs. The extent that these patterns apply outside Australia and consequences for community structure and dynamics are key areas for future investigation.

Predator-Prey Evolution from an Eco-evolutionary Trade-off Model: The Role of Trait Differentiation

We develop a novel eco-evolutionary modelling framework and demonstrate its efficacy by simulating the evolution of trait distributions in predator and prey populations. The eco-evolutionary modelling framework assumes that population traits have beta distributions and defines canonical equations for the dynamics of each total population size, the population's average trait value, and a measure of the population's trait differentiation. The trait differentiation is included in the modelling framework as a phenotype analogue, Q, of Wright's fixation index [Formula: see text], which is inversely related to the sum of the beta distribution shape parameters. The canonical equations may be used as templates to describe the evolution of population trait distributions in many ecosystems that are subject to stabilising selection. The solutions of the "population model" are compared with those of a "phenotype model" that simulates the growth of each phenotype as it interacts with every other phenotype under the same trade-offs. The models assume no sources of new phenotypic variance, such as mutation or gene flow. We examine a predator-prey system in which each population trades off growth against mortality: the prey optimises devoting resources to growth or defence against predation; and the predator trades off increasing its attack rate against increased mortality. Computer solutions with stabilising selection reveal very close agreement between the phenotype and population model results, which both predict that evolution operates to stabilise an initially oscillatory system. The population model reduces the number of equations required to simulate the eco-evolutionary system by several orders of magnitude, without losing verisimilitude for the overarching population properties. The population model also allows insights into the properties of the system that are not available from the equivalent phenotype model.

Spatial subsidies drive sweet spots of tropical marine biomass production

Spatial subsidies increase local productivity and boost consumer abundance beyond the limits imposed by local resources. In marine ecosystems, deeper water and open ocean subsidies promote animal aggregations and enhance biomass that is critical for human harvesting. However, the scale of this phenomenon in tropical marine systems remains unknown. Here, we integrate a detailed assessment of biomass production in 3 key locations, spanning a major biodiversity and abundance gradient, with an ocean-scale dataset of fish counts to predict the extent and magnitude of plankton subsidies to fishes on coral reefs. We show that planktivorous fish-mediated spatial subsidies are widespread across the Indian and Pacific oceans and drive local spikes in biomass production that can lead to extreme productivity, up to 30 kg ha-1 day-1. Plankton subsidies form the basis of productivity "sweet spots" where planktivores provide more than 50% of the total fish production, more than all other trophic groups combined. These sweet spots operate at regional, site, and smaller local scales. By harvesting oceanic productivity, planktivores bypass spatial constraints imposed by local primary productivity, creating "oases" of tropical fish biomass that are accessible to humans.

A modified niche model for generating food webs with stage-structured consumers: The stabilizing effects of life-history stages on complex food webs

Almost all organisms grow in size during their lifetime and switch diets, trophic positions, and interacting partners as they grow. Such ontogenetic development introduces life-history stages and flows of biomass between the stages through growth and reproduction. However, current research on complex food webs rarely considers life-history stages. The few previously proposed methods do not take full advantage of the existing food web structural models that can produce realistic food web topologies.We extended the niche model developed by Williams and Martinez (Nature, 2000, 404, 180-183) to generate food webs that included trophic species with a life-history stage structure. Our method aggregated trophic species based on niche overlap to form a life-history structured population; therefore, it largely preserved the topological structure of food webs generated by the niche model. We applied the theory of allometric predator-prey body mass ratio and parameterized an allometric bioenergetic model augmented with biomass flow between stages via growth and reproduction to study the effects of a stage structure on the stability of food webs.When life-history stages were linked via growth and reproduction, more food webs persisted, and persisting food webs tended to retain more trophic species. Topological differences between persisting linked and unlinked food webs were small to modest. The slopes of biomass spectra were lower, and weak interaction links were more prevalent in the linked food webs than the unlinked ones, suggesting that a life-history stage structure promotes characteristics that can enhance stability of complex food webs.Our results suggest a positive relationship between the complexity and stability of complex food webs. A life-history stage structure in food webs may play important roles in dynamics of and diversity in food webs.

Phytoplankton community structuring and succession in a competition-neutral resource landscape

Phytoplankton community composition and succession affect aquatic food webs and biogeochemistry. Resource competition is commonly viewed as an important governing factor for community structuring and this perception is imbedded in modern ecosystem models. Quantitative consideration of the physical spacing between phytoplankton cells, however, suggests that direct competition for growth-limiting resources is uncommon. Here we describe how phytoplankton size distributions and temporal successions are compatible with a competition-neutral resource landscape. Consideration of phytoplankton-herbivore interactions with proportional feeding size ranges yields small-cell dominated size distributions consistent with observations for stable aquatic environments, whereas predator-prey temporal lags and blooming physiologies shift this distribution to larger mean cell sizes in temporally dynamic environments. We propose a conceptual mandala for understanding phytoplankton community composition where species successional series are initiated by environmental disturbance, guided by the magnitude of these disturbances and nutrient stoichiometry, and terminated with the return toward a 'stable solution'. Our conceptual mandala provides a framework for interpreting and modeling the environmental structuring of natural phytoplankton populations.

Increasing temperature and productivity change biomass, trophic pyramids and community-level omega-3 fatty acid content in subarctic lake food webs

Climate change in the Arctic is outpacing the global average and land-use is intensifying due to exploitation of previously inaccessible or unprofitable natural resources. A comprehensive understanding of how the joint effects of changing climate and productivity modify lake food web structure, biomass, trophic pyramid shape and abundance of physiologically essential biomolecules (omega-3 fatty acids) in the biotic community is lacking. We conducted a space-for-time study in 20 subarctic lakes spanning a climatic (+3.2°C and precipitation: +30%) and chemical (dissolved organic carbon: +10 mg/L, total phosphorus: +45 µg/L and total nitrogen: +1,000 µg/L) gradient to test how temperature and productivity jointly affect the structure, biomass and community fatty acid content (eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) of whole food webs. Increasing temperature and productivity shifted lake communities towards dominance of warmer, murky-water-adapted taxa, with a general increase in the biomass of primary producers, and secondary and tertiary consumers, while primary invertebrate consumers did not show equally clear trends. This process altered various trophic pyramid structures towards an hour glass shape in the warmest and most productive lakes. Increasing temperature and productivity had negative fatty acid content trends (mg EPA + DHA/g dry weight) in primary producers and primary consumers, but not in secondary nor tertiary fish consumers. The massive biomass increment of fish led to increasing areal fatty acid content (kg EPA + DHA/ha) towards increasingly warmer, more productive lakes, but there were no significant trends in other trophic levels. Increasing temperature and productivity are shifting subarctic lake communities towards systems characterized by increasing dominance of cyanobacteria and cyprinid fish, although decreasing quality in terms of EPA + DHA content was observed only in phytoplankton, zooplankton and profundal benthos.

Implications of 2D versus 3D surveys to measure the abundance and composition of benthic coral reef communities

A paramount challenge in coral reef ecology is to estimate the abundance and composition of the communities residing in such complex ecosystems. Traditional 2D projected surface cover estimates neglect the 3D structure of reefs and reef organisms, overlook communities residing in cryptic reef habitats (e.g., overhangs, cavities), and thus may fail to represent biomass estimates needed to assess trophic ecology and reef function. Here, we surveyed the 3D surface cover, biovolume, and biomass (i.e., ash-free dry weight) of all major benthic taxa on 12 coral reef stations on the island of Curaçao (Southern Caribbean) using structure-from-motion photogrammetry, coral point counts, in situ measurements, and elemental analysis. We then compared our 3D benthic community estimates to corresponding estimates of traditional 2D projected surface cover to explore the differences in benthic community composition using different metrics. Overall, 2D cover was dominated (52 ± 2%, mean ± SE) by non-calcifying phototrophs (macroalgae, turf algae, benthic cyanobacterial mats), but their contribution to total reef biomass was minor (3.2 ± 0.6%). In contrast, coral cover (32 ± 2%) more closely resembled coral biomass (27 ± 6%). The relative contribution of erect organisms, such as gorgonians and massive sponges, to 2D cover was twofold and 11-fold lower, respectively, than their contribution to reef biomass. Cryptic surface area (3.3 ± 0.2 m² m^-2 _{planar reef}) comprised half of the total reef substrate, rendering two thirds of coralline algae and almost all encrusting sponges (99.8%) undetected in traditional assessments. Yet, encrusting sponges dominated reef biomass (35 ± 18%). Based on our quantification of exposed and cryptic reef communities using different metrics, we suggest adjustments to current monitoring approaches and highlight ramifications for evaluating the ecological contributions of different taxa to overall reef function. To this end, our metric conversions can complement other benthic assessments to generate non-invasive estimates of the biovolume, biomass, and elemental composition (i.e., standing stocks of organic carbon and nitrogen) of Caribbean coral reef communities.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00338-021-02118-6.

Can biomass distribution across trophic levels predict trophic cascades?

The biomass distribution across trophic levels (biomass pyramid) and cascading responses to perturbations (trophic cascades) are archetypal representatives of the interconnected set of static and dynamical properties of food chains. A vast literature has explored their respective ecological drivers, sometimes generating correlations between them. Here we instead reveal a fundamental connection: both pyramids and cascades reflect the dynamical sensitivity of the food chain to changes in species intrinsic rates. We deduce a direct relationship between cascades and pyramids, modulated by what we call trophic dissipation - a synthetic concept that encodes the contribution of top-down propagation of consumer losses in the biomass pyramid. Predictable across-ecosystem patterns emerge when systems are in similar regimes of trophic dissipation. Data from 31 aquatic mesocosm experiments demonstrate how our approach can reveal the causal mechanisms linking trophic cascades and biomass distributions, thus providing a road map to deduce reliable predictions from empirical patterns.

Landscape modification and nutrient-driven instability at a distance

Almost 50 years ago, Michael Rosenzweig pointed out that nutrient addition can destabilise food webs, leading to loss of species and reduced ecosystem function through the paradox of enrichment. Around the same time, David Tilman demonstrated that increased nutrient loading would also be expected to cause competitive exclusion leading to deleterious changes in food web diversity. While both concepts have greatly illuminated general diversity-stability theory, we currently lack a coherent framework to predict how nutrients influence food web stability across a landscape. This is a vitally important gap in our understanding, given mounting evidence of serious ecological disruption arising from anthropogenic displacement of resources and organisms. Here, we combine contemporary theory on food webs and meta-ecosystems to show that nutrient additions are indeed expected to drive loss in stability and function in human-impacted regions. Our models suggest that destabilisation is more likely to be caused by the complete loss of an equilibrium due to edible plant species being competitively excluded. In highly modified landscapes, spatial nutrient transport theory suggests that such instabilities can be amplified over vast distances from the sites of nutrient addition. Consistent with this theoretical synthesis, the empirical frequency of these distant propagating ecosystem imbalances appears to be growing. This synthesis of theory and empirical data suggests that human modification of the Earth is strongly connecting distantly separated ecosystems, causing rapid, expansive and costly nutrient-driven instabilities over vast areas of the planet. Similar to existing food web theory, the corollary to this spatial nutrient theory is that slowing down spatial nutrient pathways can be a potent means of stabilising degraded ecosystems.

Food Webs and Ecosystems: Linking Species Interactions to the Carbon Cycle

All species within ecosystems contribute to regulating carbon cycling because of their functional integration into food webs. Yet carbon modeling and accounting still assumes that only plants, microbes, and invertebrate decomposer species are relevant to the carbon cycle. Our multifaceted review develops a case for considering a wider range of species, especially herbivorous and carnivorous wild animals. Animal control over carbon cycling is shaped by the animals’ stoichiometric needs and functional traits in relation to the stoichiometry and functional traits of their resources. Quantitative synthesis reveals that failing to consider these mechanisms can lead to serious inaccuracies in the carbon budget. Newer carbon-cycle models that consider food-web structure based on organismal functional traits and stoichiometry can offer mechanistically informed predictions about the magnitudes of animal effects that will help guide new empirical research aimed at developing a coherent understanding of the interactions and importance of all species within food webs.

Food web complexity weakens size-based constraints on the pyramids of life

Marine ecosystems are generally expected to have bottom-heavy trophic structure (more plants than animals) due to size-based constraints arising from increased metabolic requirements and inefficient energy transfer. However, size-based (allometric) approaches are often limited to confined trophic-level windows where energy transfer is predicted by size alone and are constrained to a balance between bottom-up and top-down control at steady state. In real food webs, energy flow is more complex and imbalances in top-down and bottom-up processes can also shape trophic structure. We expand the size-based theory to account for complex food webs and show that moderate levels of food web connectance allow for inverted trophic structure more often than predicted, especially in marine ecosystems. Trophic structure inversion occurs due to the incorporation of complex energy pathways and top-down effects on ecosystems. Our results suggest that marine ecosystems should be top-heavy, and observed bottom-heavy trophic structure may be a result of human defaunation of the ocean that has been more extreme than presently recognized.

Extreme rainfall events alter the trophic structure in bromeliad tanks across the Neotropics

Changes in global and regional precipitation regimes are among the most pervasive components of climate change. Intensification of rainfall cycles, ranging from frequent downpours to severe droughts, could cause widespread, but largely unknown, alterations to trophic structure and ecosystem function. We conducted multi-site coordinated experiments to show how variation in the quantity and evenness of rainfall modulates trophic structure in 210 natural freshwater microcosms (tank bromeliads) across Central and South America (18°N to 29°S). The biomass of smaller organisms (detritivores) was higher under more stable hydrological conditions. Conversely, the biomass of predators was highest when rainfall was uneven, resulting in top-heavy biomass pyramids. These results illustrate how extremes of precipitation, resulting in localized droughts or flooding, can erode the base of freshwater food webs, with negative implications for the stability of trophic dynamics.

The amount and frequency of rainfall structures aquatic food webs. Here the authors show that in tropical tank bromeliads, lower trophic levels are more abundant in stable rainfall conditions, while biomass pyramids are inverted in conditions with periodic droughts.

Omnivorous ants are less carnivorous and more protein-limited in exotic plantations

Diets of species are crucial in determining how they influence food webs and community structures, and how their populations are regulated by different bottom-up processes. Omnivores are able to adjust their diet flexibly according to environmental conditions, such that their impacts on food webs and communities, and the macronutrients constraining their population, can be plastic. In particular, omnivore diets are known to be influenced by prey availability, which exhibits high spatial and temporal variation. To examine the plasticity of diet and macronutrient limitation in omnivores, we compared trophic positions, macronutrient preferences and food exploitation rates of omnivorous ants in invertebrate-rich (secondary forests) and invertebrate-poor (Lophostemon confertus plantations) habitats. We hypothesized that omnivorous ants would have lower trophic positions, enhanced protein limitation and reduced food exploitation rates in L. confertus plantations relative to secondary forests. We performed cafeteria experiments to examine changes in macronutrient limitation and food exploitation rates. We also sampled ants and conducted stable isotope analyses to investigate dietary shifts between these habitats. We found that conspecific ants were less carnivorous and had higher preferences for protein-rich food in L. confertus plantations compared to secondary forests. However, ant assemblages did not exhibit increased preferences for protein-rich food in L. confertus plantations. At the species-level, food exploitation rates varied idiosyncratically between habitats. At the assemblage-level, food exploitation rates were reduced in L. confertus plantations. Our results reveal that plantation establishments alter the diet and foraging behaviour of omnivorous ants. Such changes suggest that omnivorous ants in plantations will have reduced top-down impacts on prey communities but also see an increased importance of protein as a bottom-up force in constraining omnivore population sizes.

Species richness and functional structure of fish assemblages in three freshwater habitats: effects of environmental factors and management

In this study, the inverted trophic hypothesis was tested in the freshwater fish communities of a reservoir. The distribution of fish species in three freshwater habitats in the Jurumirim Reservoir, Brazil, was examined using both species richness and the relative proportions of different trophic groups. These groups were used as a proxy for functional structure in an attempt to test the ability of these measures to assess fish diversity. Assemblage structures were first described using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The influence of environmental conditions for multiple fish assemblage response variables (richness, total abundance and abundance per trophic group) was tested using generalised linear mixed models (GLMM). The metric typically employed to describe diversity; that is, species richness, was not related to environmental conditions. However, absolute species abundance was relatively well explained with up to 54% of the variation in the observed data accounted for. Differences in the dominance of trophic groups were most apparent in response to the presence of introduced fish species: the iliophagous and piscivorous trophic groups were positively associated, while detritivores and herbivores were negatively associated, with the alien species. This suggests that monitoring functional diversity might be more valuable than species diversity for assessing effects of disturbances and managements policies on the fish community.

Foraging consistency of coral reef fishes across environmental gradients in the central Pacific

We take advantage of a natural gradient of human exploitation and oceanic primary production across five central Pacific coral reefs to examine foraging patterns in common coral reef fishes. Using stomach content and stable isotope (δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C) analyses, we examined consistency across islands in estimated foraging patterns. Surprisingly, species within the piscivore-invertivore group exhibited the clearest pattern of foraging consistency across all five islands despite there being a considerable difference in mean body mass (14 g-1.4 kg) and prey size (0.03-3.8 g). In contrast, the diets and isotopic values of the grazer-detritivores varied considerably and exhibited no consistent patterns across islands. When examining foraging patterns across environmental contexts, we found that δ¹⁵N values of species of piscivore-invertivore and planktivore closely tracked gradients in oceanic primary production; again, no comparable patterns existed for the grazer-detritivores. The inter-island consistency in foraging patterns within the species of piscivore-invertivore and planktivore and the lack of consistency among species of grazer-detritivores suggests a linkage to different sources of primary production among reef fish functional groups. Our findings suggest that piscivore-invertivores and planktivores are likely linked to well-mixed and isotopically constrained allochthonous oceanic primary production, while grazer-detritivores are likely linked to sources of benthic primary production and autochthonous recycling. Further, our findings suggest that species of piscivore-invertivore, independent of body size, converge toward consuming low trophic level prey, with a hypothesized result of reducing the number of steps between trophic levels and increasing the trophic efficiency at a community level.

Spatial insurance in multi-trophic metacommunities

Metacommunity theory suggests that dispersal is a key driver of diversity and ecosystem functioning in changing environments. The capacity of dispersal to mitigate effects of environmental change might vary among trophic groups, potentially resulting in changes in trophic interactions and food web structure. In a mesocosm experiment, we compared the compositional response of bacteria, phyto‐ and zooplankton to a factorial manipulation of acidification and dispersal. We found that the buffering capacity of dispersal varied among trophic groups: dispersal alleviated the negative effect of acidification on phytoplankton diversity mid‐experiment, but had no effect on the diversity of zooplankton and bacteria. Likewise, trophic groups differed in whether dispersal facilitated compositional change. Dispersal accelerated changes in phytoplankton composition under acidification, possibly mediated by changes in trophic interactions, but had no effect on the composition of zooplankton and bacteria. Overall, our results suggest that the potential for spatial insurance can vary among trophic groups.