Climate Change Uncouples Trophic Interactions in an Aquatic Ecosystem

Abstract

The largest uncertainty in forecasting the effects of climate change on ecosystems is in understanding how it will affect the nature of interactions among species. Climate change may have unexpected consequences because different species show unique responses to changes in environmental temperatures. Here we show that increasingly warmer springs since 1962 have disrupted the trophic linkages between phytoplankton and zooplankton in a large temperate lake because of differing sensitivity to vernal warming. The timing of thermal stratification and the spring diatom bloom have advanced by more than 20 days during this time period. A long‐term decline in Daphnia populations, the keystone herbivore, is associated with an expanding temporal mismatch with the spring diatom bloom and may have severe consequences for resource flow to upper trophic levels.

Comprendiendo las condiciones bióticas y abióticas en los lagos de hoyo de mina postminería, para su manejo eficiente: un caso de estudio (Polonia)

“…According to Winder and Schindler (2004), the minimum Schmidt stability index required for stable thermal stratification is 50 g cm cm −2 . The Schmidt index in these lakes calculated for the summer sampling period was not high compared with Lake Moszczonne (690 g cm cm −2 ) and Lake Wielickie (830 g cm cm −2 ) of the Dobrzyń Lake District (Marszelewski 2001).…”

The response of temperate aquatic ecosystems to global warming: novel insights from a multidisciplinary project

“…In fact, a mismatch between seasonal maxima of food availability and food demand can be expected if the seasonal development of both the producer and consumer respond differently to warming or if only one of both responds to temperature, while the other responds to light (Winder and Schindler 2004). Assuming that the phenology of consumers is evolutionarily tuned to the present-day seasonality of food availability, the expectation of an increasing risk of mismatch under a changing climate seems highly plausible.…”

Effects of warming on Potamogeton crispus growth and tissue stoichiometry in the growing season

“…It is likely that the global temperature will increase by 1.1-6.4 • C in the 21st century compared to 1980-1999 on top of the warming in the last century (IPCC, 2007). Warming affects a myriad of biological processes, including individual metabolic rates and growth rates (Yvon-Durocher et al, 2010), life history traits and phenology, which may induce trophic mismatches between consumer demands and prey availability (Winder and Schindler, 2004).…”

“…alterations of trophic interactions (O'Connor, 2009), which may have cascading effects throughout the food web (Shurin et al, 2012) due to a mismatch in timing (Winder and Schindler, 2004) or change in food quality. Plant nutrient concentrations and the C:nutrient stoichiometry have been shown to be strong predictors of plant consumption rates across ecosystems (Elser et al, 2000a;Sterner and Elser, 2002).…”