scholarly journals On the biogeography of salt limitation: A study of ant communities

2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (46) ◽  
pp. 17848-17851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kaspari ◽  
Stephen P. Yanoviak ◽  
Robert Dudley
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
New World ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Forest Litter ◽  
Sodium Concentration ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Sodium Toxicity ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Essential Nutrient

Sodium is an essential nutrient whose deposition in rainfall decreases with distance inland. The herbivores and microbial decomposers that feed on sodium-poor vegetation should be particularly constrained along gradients of decreasing sodium. We studied the use of sucrose and NaCl baits in 17 New World ant communities located 4–2757 km inland. Sodium use was higher in genera and subfamilies characterized as omnivores/herbivores compared with those classified as carnivores and was lower in communities embedded in forest litter than in those embedded in abundant vegetation. Sodium use was increased in ant communities further inland, as was preference for the baits with the highest sodium concentration. Sucrose use, a measure of ant activity, peaked in communities 10–100 km inland. We suggest that the geography of ant activity is shaped by sodium toxicity near the shore and by sodium deficit farther inland. Given the importance of ants in terrestrial ecosystems, changing patterns of rainfall with global change may ramify through inland food webs.

Theoretical Ecology

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Change Theory ◽  
Theoretical Ecology ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
Ecological Applications ◽  
Population Interactions ◽  
Theoretical Science ◽  
The Way ◽  
Forward Looking

This book continues the authoritative and established edited series of theoretical ecology books initiated by Robert May which helped pave the way for ecology to become a more robust theoretical science, encouraging the modern biologist to better understand the mathematics behind their theories. This latest instalment in the Theoretical Ecology series builds on the legacy of its predecessors with a completely new set of contributions. Rather than placing emphasis on the historical ideas in theoretical ecology, the editors have encouraged each contribution to: i) synthesize historical theoretical ideas within modern frameworks that have emerged in the last ten to twenty years (e.g., bridging population interactions to whole food webs); ii) describe novel theory that has emerged in the last twenty years from historical empirical areas (e.g., macro-ecology); and iii) cover the booming area of theoretical ecological applications (e.g., disease theory and global change theory). The result is a forward-looking synthesis that will help guide the field through a further decade of development and discovery.

Global change alters the stability of food webs

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Emmerson ◽  
Martijn Bezemer ◽  
Mark D. Hunter ◽  
T. Hefin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
The Stability

Trophic pyramids reorganize when food web architecture fails to adjust to ocean change

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 369 (6505) ◽  
pp. 829-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Nagelkerken ◽  
Silvan U. Goldenberg ◽  
Camilo M. Ferreira ◽  
Hadayet Ullah ◽  
Sean D. Connell
Keyword(s):  
Abiotic Stress ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Ecosystem Degradation ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Web Architecture ◽  
Species Substitution

As human activities intensify, the structures of ecosystems and their food webs often reorganize. Through the study of mesocosms harboring a diverse benthic coastal community, we reveal that food web architecture can be inflexible under ocean warming and acidification and unable to compensate for the decline or proliferation of taxa. Key stabilizing processes, including functional redundancy, trophic compensation, and species substitution, were largely absent under future climate conditions. A trophic pyramid emerged in which biomass expanded at the base and top but contracted in the center. This structure may characterize a transitionary state before collapse into shortened, bottom-heavy food webs that characterize ecosystems subject to persistent abiotic stress. We show that where food web architecture lacks adjustability, the adaptive capacity of ecosystems to global change is weak and ecosystem degradation likely.

scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity mediates climate change responses among invasive and indigenous arthropods

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1625) ◽  
pp. 2531-2537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven L Chown ◽  
Sarette Slabber ◽  
Melodie A McGeoch ◽  
Charlene Janion ◽  
Hans Petter Leinaas
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Change Type ◽  
Climate Change Responses

Synergies between global change and biological invasion have been identified as a major potential threat to global biodiversity and human welfare. The global change-type drought characteristic of many temperate terrestrial ecosystems is especially significant because it will apparently favour invasive over indigenous species, adding to the burden of conservation and compromising ecosystem service delivery. However, the nature of and mechanisms underlying this synergy remain poorly explored. Here we show that in a temperate terrestrial ecosystem, invasive and indigenous springtail species differ in the form of their phenotypic plasticity such that warmer conditions promote survival of desiccation in the invasive species and reduce it in the indigenous ones. These differences are consistent with significant declines in the densities of indigenous species and little change in those of invasive species in a manipulative field experiment that mimicked climate change trends. We suggest that it is not so much the extent of phenotypic plasticity that distinguishes climate change responses among these invasive and indigenous species, as the form that this plasticity takes. Nonetheless, this differential physiological response provides support for the idea that in temperate terrestrial systems experiencing global change-type drought, invasive species may well be at an advantage relative to their indigenous counterparts.

Changing Patterns of Fungal Toxins in Crops: Challenges for Analysts

2016 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 837-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
J David Miller
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Ear Rot ◽  
Native Population ◽  
Head Blight ◽  
Cool Season ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Cropping Patterns ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Changing Patterns

Abstract This short review discusses the need to manage climate-driven expansion of old toxins in new geographic areas (e.g., aflatoxin or fumonisin in corn in historically cooler areas, and ergot where rainfall and cropping patterns have changed). In addition, a renewed consideration of the toxins that can occur in feed sources used in cool-season dairy areas is needed (e.g., silage and distillers dry grains with solubles). A separate issue concerns genetic changes that are occurring in the species that cause Fusarium head blight/Gibberella ear rot. Small differences in climate appear to determine the distribution of the two dominant populations (native to the new world and from Asia). The chemotype that produces deoxynivalenol via the monoacetate at the 3 position results in the accumulation of somewhat more deoxynivalenol than the native population, which involves the monoacetate at the 15 position. There are also genetic changes occurring that have resulted in populations that produce different metabolites. Similarly, an increase in the area where Aspergillus flavus can thrive and the discovery of the sexual stage of this fungus have raised the potential of genetic change accelerated by climate. To address all these issues, new methods and increased availability of reference standards, as well as training and awareness, will be required.

scholarly journals Preliminary Estimations of Insect Mediated Transfers of Mercury and Physiologically Important Fatty Acids from Water to Land

Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney Moyo
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Organic Contaminants ◽  
Aquatic Insects ◽  
Total Mercury ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Aquatic Insect ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Energy Subsidy

Aquatic insects provide an energy subsidy to riparian food webs. However, most empirical studies have considered the role of subsidies only in terms of magnitude (using biomass measurements) and quality (using physiologically important fatty acids), negating an aspect of subsidies that may affect their impact on recipient food webs: the potential of insects to transport contaminants (e.g., mercury) to terrestrial ecosystems. To this end, I used empirical data to estimate the magnitude of nutrients (using physiologically important fatty acids as a proxy) and contaminants (total mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg)) exported by insects from rivers and lacustrine systems in each continent. The results reveal that North American rivers may export more physiologically important fatty acids per unit area (93.0 ± 32.6 Kg Km−2 year−1) than other continents. Owing to the amount of variation in Hg and MeHg, there were no significant differences in MeHg and Hg among continents in lakes (Hg: 1.5 × 10−4 to 1.0 × 10−3 Kg Km−2 year−1; MeHg: 7.7 × 10−5 to 1.0 × 10−4 Kg Km−2 year−1) and rivers (Hg: 3.2 × 10−4 to 1.1 × 10−3 Kg Km−2 year−1; MeHg: 3.3 × 10−4 to 8.9 × 10−4 Kg Km−2 year−1), with rivers exporting significantly larger quantities of mercury across all continents than lakes. Globally, insect export of physiologically important fatty acids by insect was estimated to be ~43.9 × 106 Kg year−1 while MeHg was ~649.6 Kg year−1. The calculated estimates add to the growing body of literature, which suggests that emerging aquatic insects are important in supplying essential nutrients to terrestrial consumers; however, with the increase of pollutants in freshwater systems, emergent aquatic insect may also be sentinels of organic contaminants to terrestrial consumers.

Resource subsidies between stream and terrestrial ecosystems under global change

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 2489-2504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Larsen ◽  
Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer ◽  
Eugenia Marti
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Resource Subsidies

Global change and food webs in running waters

Hydrobiologia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 657 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Perkins ◽  
Julia Reiss ◽  
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher ◽  
Guy Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Running Waters

Exploring the effects of biodiversity and elemental stoichiometry on terrestrial carbon balance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Fernández-Martínez ◽  
Jordi Sardans ◽  
Josep Peñuelas ◽  
Ivan Janssens
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Elemental Composition ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Endogenous Factors ◽  
Ecosystem Carbon ◽  
Elemental Stoichiometry ◽  
Ecosystem Carbon Balance

<p>Global change is affecting the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to sequester carbon. While the effect of climate on ecosystem carbon balance has largely been explored, the role of other potentially important factors that may shift with global change, such as biodiversity and the concentration of nutrients remains elusive. More diverse ecosystems have been shown to be more productive and stable over time and differences in foliar concentrations of N and P are related to large differences in how primary producers function. Here, we used 89 eddy-covariance sites included in the FLUXNET 2015 database, from which we compiled information on climate, species abundance and elemental composition of the main species. With these data, we assessed the relative importance of climate, endogenous factors, biodiversity and community-weighted concentrations of foliar N and P on terrestrial carbon balance. Climate and endogenous factors, such as stand age, are the main determinants of terrestrial C balance and their interannual variability in all types of ecosystems. Elemental stoichiometry, though, played a significant role affecting photosynthesis, an effect that propagates through ecosystem respiration and carbon sequestration. Biodiversity, instead, had a very limited effect on terrestrial carbon balance. We found increased respiration rates and more stable gross primary production with increasing diversity. Our results are the first attempt to investigate the role of biodiversity and the elemental composition of terrestrial ecosystems in ecosystem carbon balance.</p>

Global change, soil biodiversity, and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems: three case studies

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 729-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. SWIFT ◽  
O. ANDRÉN ◽  
L. BRUSSAARD ◽  
M. BRIONES ◽  
M. -M. COUTEAUX ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Nitrogen Cycling ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Soil Biodiversity
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