Plankton food-webs: to what extent can they be simplified?

D’Alelio, Domenico; Montresor, Marina; Mazzocchi, Maria Grazia; Margiotta, Francesca; Sarno, Diana; d'Alcala, Maurizio Ribeira

doi:10.4081/aiol.2016.5646

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 87 publications

(149 reference statements)

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“…These conditions of accumulated biomass of algal species are termed harmful algal blooms (HABs). Often viewed as physiologically simple organisms, investigation into the formation of HABs (D'Alelio et al ., ) reveals that these organisms can occupy a plethora of niches, and these niches are open to native species that are in low concentrations in natural waters as well as to invasive species, with both contributing to HABs.…”

Section: Emerging Threatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity

et al. 2018

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In the 12 years since Dudgeon et al. (2006) reviewed major pressures on freshwater ecosystems, the biodiversity crisis in the world's lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams and wetlands has deepened. While lakes, reservoirs and rivers cover only 2.3% of the Earth's surface, these ecosystems host at least 9.5% of the Earth's described animal species. Furthermore, using the World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Planet Index, freshwater population declines (83% between 1970 and 2014) continue to outpace contemporaneous declines in marine or terrestrial systems. The Anthropocene has brought multiple new and varied threats that disproportionately impact freshwater systems. We document 12 emerging threats to freshwater biodiversity that are either entirely new since 2006 or have since intensified: (i) changing climates; (ii) e-commerce and invasions; (iii) infectious diseases; (iv) harmful algal blooms; (v) expanding hydropower; (vi) emerging contaminants; (vii) engineered nanomaterials; (viii) microplastic pollution; (ix) light and noise; (x) freshwater salinisation; (xi) declining calcium; and (xii) cumulative stressors. Effects are evidenced for amphibians, fishes, invertebrates, microbes, plants, turtles and waterbirds, with potential for ecosystem-level changes through bottom-up and top-down processes. In our highly uncertain future, the net effects of these threats raise serious concerns for freshwater ecosystems. However, we also highlight opportunities for conservation gains as a result of novel management tools (e.g. environmental flows, environmental DNA) and specific conservation-oriented actions (e.g. dam removal, habitat protection policies, managed relocation of species) that have been met with varying levels of success. Moving forward, we advocate hybrid approaches that manage fresh waters as crucial ecosystems for human life support as well as essential hotspots of biodiversity and ecological function. Efforts to reverse global trends in freshwater degradation now depend on bridging an immense gap between the aspirations of conservation biologists and the accelerating rate of species endangerment.

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Section: Emerging Threatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity

et al. 2018

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“…As a result, the planktonic food web underwent a substantial rewiring while maintaining almost the same global flow to upper trophic levels, since energetic hierarchy was maintained despite environmental variability, as suggested for other ecological systems (Kemp et al, ). To this latter respect, the more energetic modules, that is, G1 and B1, at the green and blue states of the planktonic food web included mostly invertebrates (see Figure ), which compose the basic diet of small pelagic fish standing at the top of that food web (see also D'Alelio, Montresor, et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The planktonic meta‐food web from the Gulf of Naples (Italy) described by D'Alelio, Libralato, et al (). In the left and right panels, matrices of carbon flows among predators (in columns) and preys (in rows) for the oligotrophic, or blue, and the eutrophic, or green, states of the food web, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data pertaining to the production of the plankton food web analyzed in this paper are published and commented in D'Alelio, Libralato, et al (); https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21806) and D'Alelio, Montresor, et al (); https://doi.org/10.4081/aiol.2016.5646); the biomass flow matrices analyzed herein are appended in Data of the present article; single values of the network indices presented herein are appended in Data .…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Copepods are reported as resilient to changing conditions in different marine systems (Mazzocchi, Dubroca, García-Comas, Capua, & Ribera d'Alcalà, 2012;Paffenhöfer, Sherr, & Sherr, 2007) and have been considered as energy gates, linking different trophic levels and switching between alternative pathways (Stibor et al, 2004). In the GoN, calanoids are reported to guarantee an effective flow of matter toward small pelagic fish by changing dietary preferences based on resource availability (D'Alelio, Montresor, et al, 2016).…”

Section: Food Web Rewiring Indirect Effects and Modularity Reshuffmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rewiring and indirect effects underpin modularity reshuffling in a marine food web under environmental shifts

D’Alelio

Mele

Libralato

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Species are characterized by physiological and behavioral plasticity, which is part of their response to environmental shifts. Nonetheless, the collective response of ecological communities to environmental shifts cannot be predicted from the simple sum of individual species responses, since co‐existing species are deeply entangled in interaction networks, such as food webs. For these reasons, the relation between environmental forcing and the structure of food webs is an open problem in ecology. To this respect, one of the main problems in community ecology is defining the role each species plays in shaping community structure, such as by promoting the subdivision of food webs in modules—that is, aggregates composed of species that more frequently interact—which are reported as community stabilizers.In this study, we investigated the relationship between species roles and network modularity under environmental shifts in a highly resolved food web, that is, a “weighted” ecological network reproducing carbon flows among marine planktonic species. Measuring network properties and estimating weighted modularity, we show that species have distinct roles, which differentially affect modularity and mediate structural modifications, such as modules reconfiguration, induced by environmental shifts.Specifically, short‐term environmental changes impact the abundance of planktonic primary producers; this affects their consumers’ behavior and cascades into the overall rearrangement of trophic links. Food web re‐adjustments are both direct, through the rewiring of trophic‐interaction networks, and indirect, with the reconfiguration of trophic cascades. Through such “systemic behavior,” that is, the way the food web acts as a whole, defined by the interactions among its parts, the planktonic food web undergoes a substantial rewiring while keeping almost the same global flow to upper trophic levels, and energetic hierarchy is maintained despite environmental shifts. This behavior suggests the potentially high resilience of plankton networks, such as food webs, to dramatic environmental changes, such as those provoked by global change.

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The Plankton Food‐Web Role in the Oceans

D’Alelio

2019

Encyclopedia of Water

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Plankton are organisms not able to swim against water currents. They live in every aquatic environment and stand at the base of food webs and biogeochemical cycles on our planet. Plankton include prokaryotes (unicellular organisms without a nucleus), protists, and protozoans (unicellular eukaryotes or organisms with a proper nucleus) and metazoans (multicellular eukaryotes). These groups feature a huge biological diversity, which cascades into a myriad of different sizes, forms, behaviors, and, ultimately, roles played in aquatic ecosystems. The interaction of different plankton species produce complex ecological networks encompassing multiple feeding connections, or trophic links. The complexity of interactions among plankton is an emergent property whose investigation is made possible by ecological‐network models. Long‐term ecological research programs aiming at assessing ocean health can profit from these modeling tools to integrate (i) plankton biodiversity explorations and (ii) the search for the role played by the entangled plankton webs in the functioning of our planet's largest environment, i.e. the ocean.

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Plankton food-webs: to what extent can they be simplified?

Cited by 19 publications

References 87 publications

Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity

Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity

Rewiring and indirect effects underpin modularity reshuffling in a marine food web under environmental shifts

The Plankton Food‐Web Role in the Oceans

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