Ecosystem connectivity and configuration can mediate instability at a distance in metaecosystems

Tadiri, Christina P.; Dastis, Jorge Octavio Negrín; Cristescu, Melania E.; Gonzalez, Andrew; Fussmann, Gregor F.

doi:10.1101/2023.03.03.531041

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…This type of multistage continuous culture systems has an advantage over single-stage homogenous chemostats in that they produce dynamic solute gradients that can be transferred between interconnected asks. In a recent experimental study, Tadiri et al (2023) found that connectivity can impact stability of distant ecosystems, particularly in linear systems. Few other gradostat studies have assessed the ecological outcomes of gradients in biocides maintained by ows.…”

Section: Hébert Et Al 2019)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Connectivity mediates the spatial ecological impacts of a glyphosate-based herbicide in experimental metaecosystems

Dastis,

McGuinness,

Tadiri

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Connectivity is important for the structure and functioning of metaecosystems. We experimentally replicated metaecosystems in the laboratory using gradostats - a modified chemostat with flasks linked by a controlled flow of medium - as a model system. Metaecosystems were represented in our experiment as chain of flasks connected by spatial flows of medium containing glyphosate based herbicide (RoundUp). With this experimental set-up, we tested the effects of structural and functional connectivity and herbicide on phytoplankton productivity, diversity and population stability. Gradostats were composed of interconnected equally-spaced habitat nodes where resources and producers flow directionally along a gradient of increasing distance from the source of the herbicide. We predicted that connectivity would mediate the effects of the herbicide spreading through the chain of connected ecosystems. We found that RoundUp impacted overall phytoplankton productivity and diversity by reducing algal biomass and species-level abundances of phytoplankton in the treated flasks compared to controls. This effect was mediated by structural connectivity, which in interaction with flow, had reduced phytoplankton community stability by the end of the experiment at the local level, especially in the first flask receiving herbicide. The effects did do not scale up to the entire metaecosystem. Together, these results point to the importance of structural connectivity as a mediator of the ecological effects of herbicide transferred by flows across a linear chain of ecosystems.

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Section: Hébert Et Al 2019)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Connectivity mediates the spatial ecological impacts of a glyphosate-based herbicide in experimental metaecosystems

Dastis,

McGuinness,

Tadiri

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…All raw data necessary to reproduce our results are available from the Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p2ngf1vxk (Tadiri, 2023).…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem connectivity and configuration can mediate instability at a distance in metaecosystems

Tadiri,

Negrín Dastis,

Cristescu

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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Ecosystems are connected by flows of nutrients and organisms. Changes to connectivity and nutrient enrichment may destabilise ecosystem dynamics far from the nutrient source. We used gradostats to examine the effects of trophic connectivity (movement of consumers and producers) versus nutrient‐only connectivity on the dynamics of Daphnia pulex (consumers) and algae (resources) in two metaecosystem configurations (linear vs. dendritic). We found that Daphnia peak population size and instability (coefficient of variation; CV) increased as distance from the nutrient input increased, but these effects were lower in metaecosystems connected by all trophic levels compared with nutrient‐only connected systems and/or in dendritic compared with linear systems. We examined the effects of trophic connectivity (i.e. both trophic levels move rather than one or the other) using a generic model to qualitatively assess whether the expectations align with the ecosystem dynamics we observed. Analysis of our model shows that increased Daphnia population sizes and fluctuations in consumer‐resource dynamics are expected with nutrient connectivity, with this pattern being more pronounced in linear rather than dendritic systems. These results confirm that connectivity may propagate and even amplify instability over a metaecosystem to communities distant from the source disturbance, and suggest a direction for future experiments, that recreate conditions closer to those found in natural systems. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Ecosystem connectivity and configuration can mediate instability at a distance in metaecosystems

Cited by 2 publications

References 31 publications

Connectivity mediates the spatial ecological impacts of a glyphosate-based herbicide in experimental metaecosystems

Connectivity mediates the spatial ecological impacts of a glyphosate-based herbicide in experimental metaecosystems

Ecosystem connectivity and configuration can mediate instability at a distance in metaecosystems

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