Can biomass distribution across trophic levels predict trophic cascades?

Autor: Galiana N; Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, 09200, France., Arnoldi JF; Zoology Department, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland., Barbier M; Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, 09200, France., Acloque A; Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, 09200, France., de Mazancourt C; Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, 09200, France., Loreau M; Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, 09200, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology letters [Ecol Lett] 2021 Mar; Vol. 24 (3), pp. 464-476. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Dec 13.
DOI: 10.1111/ele.13658
Abstrakt: 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.
(© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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