Warming alters community size structure and ecosystem functioning
| Autor: | Matteo Dossena, José M. Montoya, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Jonathan Grey, Daniel M. Perkins, Mark Trimmer, Guy Woodward |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
Odonata
Biodiversity Global Warming General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Mesocosm Rivers Animals Ecosystem Biomass Research Articles General Environmental Science Biomass (ecology) General Immunology and Microbiology Ecology Aquatic ecosystem Global warming Community structure General Medicine Invertebrates Plant Leaves Biodegradation Environmental Populus Body mass Benthic zone Ecosystem functioning Environmental science Size spectrum General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Isopoda |
| Zdroj: | Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| Popis: | 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, electronic supplementary material is available at http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/279/1740/3011/suppl/DC1 Global warming can affect all levels of biological complexity, though we currently understand least about its potential impact on communities and ecosystems. At the ecosystem level, warming has the capacity to alter the structure of communities and the rates of key ecosystem processes they mediate. Here we assessed the effects of a 4°C rise in temperature on the size structure and taxonomic composition of benthic communities in aquatic mesocosms, and the rates of detrital decomposition they mediated. Warming had no effect on biodiversity, but altered community size structure in two ways. In spring, warmer systems exhibited steeper size spectra driven by declines in total community biomass and the proportion of large organisms. By contrast, in autumn, warmer systems had shallower size spectra driven by elevated total community biomass and a greater proportion of large organisms. Community-level shifts were mirrored by changes in decomposition rates. Temperature-corrected microbial and macrofaunal decomposition rates reflected the shifts in community structure and were strongly correlated with biomass across mesocosms. Our study demonstrates that the 4°C rise in temperature expected by the end of the century has the potential to alter the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems profoundly, as well as the intimate linkages between these levels of ecological organization. © 2012 The Royal Society M.D. was supported by the Aquatic Ecology by Research MSc programme within SBCS, Queen Mary University of London hosted by J.G. G.Y.-D., M.T., D.M.P. and G.W. acknowledge the financial support of NERC (grant nos. NE/F004753/1 and NE/D013305/1), and J.M.M. the financial support of a Ramon y Cajal Fellowship (RYC-2008-03664) and Generalitat de Catalunya grant (2009SGR142). The experiment was made possible thanks to the support of the NERC Fellowship Scheme (NE/C002105/1) awarded to J.M.M., and the hosting of the facilities by the Freshwater Biological Association |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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