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Species dispersal and resource spatial flows can greatly affect connected ecosystems functioning and their response to environmental changes. So far, research on meta-ecosystems has mainly focused on the quantitative effect of subsidy flows. Yet, resource exchanges at the terrestrial-aquatic ecotones display a stoichiometric asymmetry that likely matters for production. Here, we joined ecological stoichiometry and the meta-ecosystem framework to understand how subsidy stoichiometry mediates the response of meta-ecosystem to subsidy flows. Our results demonstrate that resource flows between ecosystems can induce a positive spatial feedback loop, leading to higher production at meta-ecosystem scale by relaxing local ecosystem limitations ("spatial complementarity"). Furthermore, we show that spatial flows can also have an unexpected negative impact on production when accentuating the stoichiometric mismatch between local resources and basal species needs. This study paves the way for new studies on the quality dimension of connectedness at the landscape extent.
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