Hengill, a high temperature thermal area in Iceland

107

105

Global warming is widely predicted to reduce the biomass production of top predators, or even result in species loss. Several exceptions to this expectation have been identified, however, and it is vital that we understand the underlying mechanisms if we are to improve our ability to predict future trends. Here, we used a natural warming experiment in Iceland and quantitative theoretical predictions to investigate the success of brown trout as top predators across a stream temperature gradient (4–25 °C). Brown trout are at the northern limit of their geographic distribution in this system, with ambient stream temperatures below their optimum for maximal growth, and above it in the warmest streams. A five‐month mark‐recapture study revealed that population abundance, biomass, growth rate, and production of trout all increased with stream temperature. We identified two mechanisms that contributed to these responses: (1) trout became more selective in their diet as stream temperature increased, feeding higher in the food web and increasing in trophic position; and (2) trophic transfer through the food web was more efficient in the warmer streams. We found little evidence to support a third potential mechanism: that external subsidies would play a more important role in the diet of trout with increasing stream temperature. Resource availability was also amplified through the trophic levels with warming, as predicted by metabolic theory in nutrient‐replete systems. These results highlight circumstances in which top predators can thrive in warmer environments and contribute to our knowledge of warming impacts on natural communities and ecosystem functioning.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature effects on fish production across a natural thermal gradient

O’Gorman

Ólafsson

Demars

et al. 2016

107

105

“…Importantly, indirect geothermal heating does not produce unusual solute chemistry often associated with volcanic regions (Friberg et al ., ; O'Gorman et al ., ). The dominant geology is young basalt (Árnason et al ., ). Streams in the study area exhibit low dissolved molar N:P ratios (<3), with primary production believed to be primarily, but not exclusively, N‐limited (Friberg et al ., ; Gundmundsdottir et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Warming alters coupled carbon and nutrient cycles in experimental streams

Williamson

Cross

Benstead

et al. 2016

Although much effort has been devoted to quantifying how warming alters carbon cycling across diverse ecosystems, less is known about how these changes are linked to the cycling of bioavailable nitrogen and phosphorus. In freshwater ecosystems, benthic biofilms (i.e. thin films of algae, bacteria, fungi, and detrital matter) act as biogeochemical hotspots by controlling important fluxes of energy and material. Understanding how biofilms respond to warming is thus critical for predicting responses of coupled elemental cycles in freshwater systems. We developed biofilm communities in experimental streamside channels along a gradient of mean water temperatures (7.5-23.6 °C), while closely maintaining natural diel and seasonal temperature variation with a common water and propagule source. Both structural (i.e. biomass, stoichiometry, assemblage structure) and functional (i.e. metabolism, N2 -fixation, nutrient uptake) attributes of biofilms were measured on multiple dates to link changes in carbon flow explicitly to the dynamics of nitrogen and phosphorus. Temperature had strong positive effects on biofilm biomass (2.8- to 24-fold variation) and net ecosystem productivity (44- to 317-fold variation), despite extremely low concentrations of limiting dissolved nitrogen. Temperature had surprisingly minimal effects on biofilm stoichiometry: carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratios were temperature-invariant, while carbon:phosphorus (C:P) ratios declined slightly with increasing temperature. Biofilm communities were dominated by cyanobacteria at all temperatures (>91% of total biovolume) and N2 -fixation rates increased up to 120-fold between the coldest and warmest treatments. Although ammonium-N uptake increased with temperature (2.8- to 6.8-fold variation), the much higher N2 -fixation rates supplied the majority of N to the ecosystem at higher temperatures. Our results demonstrate that temperature can alter how carbon is cycled and coupled to nitrogen and phosphorus. The uncoupling of C fixation from dissolved inorganic nitrogen supply produced large unexpected changes in biofilm development, elemental cycling, and likely downstream exports of nutrients and organic matter.

“…), approximately 5 km from the experimental stream. Both areas have numerous groundwater‐fed streams that differ in temperature due to degree of geothermal influence (Árnason et al ., ; Azimudin, ). Both streams are first order and groundwater‐fed with little to no geothermal influence; they also have comparable physical and chemical characteristics (Table S1), including average annual temperatures and similar invertebrate communities (Ólafsson et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental whole‐stream warming alters community size structure

Nelson

Benstead

Huryn

et al. 2016

How ecological communities respond to predicted increases in temperature will determine the extent to which Earth's biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can be maintained into a warmer future. Warming is predicted to alter the structure of natural communities, but robust tests of such predictions require appropriate large-scale manipulations of intact, natural habitat that is open to dispersal processes via exchange with regional species pools. Here, we report results of a two-year whole-stream warming experiment that shifted invertebrate assemblage structure via unanticipated mechanisms, while still conforming to community-level metabolic theory. While warming by 3.8 °C decreased invertebrate abundance in the experimental stream by 60% relative to a reference stream, total invertebrate biomass was unchanged. Associated shifts in invertebrate assemblage structure were driven by the arrival of new taxa and a higher proportion of large, warm-adapted species (i.e., snails and predatory dipterans) relative to small-bodied, cold-adapted taxa (e.g., chironomids and oligochaetes). Experimental warming consequently shifted assemblage size spectra in ways that were unexpected, but consistent with thermal optima of taxa in the regional species pool. Higher temperatures increased community-level energy demand, which was presumably satisfied by higher primary production after warming. Our experiment demonstrates how warming reassembles communities within the constraints of energy supply via regional exchange of species that differ in thermal physiological traits. Similar responses will likely mediate impacts of anthropogenic warming on biodiversity and ecosystem function across all ecological communities.