Top‐down control by an aquatic invertebrate predator increases with temperature but does not depend on individual behavioral type

Ingram, Travis; Burns, Zuri D.

doi:10.1002/ece3.4367

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Low temperatures reduce the effects of salinity [63], biotic interactions [64] and probably their combined effects, therefore our results probably underestimate these effects because the current study was conducted during winter. To further explore patterns revealed in this experiment, the research presented here will be coupled with examination of trait-phylogeny-environment relationships to understand how traits, relatedness, and salinity may influence stream invertebrate communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Biological interactions mediate context and species-specific sensitivities to salinity

Bray

Reich

Nichols

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Toxicants have both sub-lethal and lethal effects on aquatic biota, influencing organism fitness and community composition. However, toxicant effects within ecosystems may be altered by interactions with abiotic and biotic ecosystem components, including biological interactions. Collectively, this generates the potential for toxicant sensitivity to be highly context dependent, with significantly different outcomes in ecosystems than laboratory toxicity tests predict. We experimentally manipulated stream macroinvertebrate communities in 32 mesocosms to examine how communities from a low-salinity site were influenced by interactions with those from a high-salinity site along a gradient of salinity. Relative to those from the low-salinity site, organisms from the high-salinity site were expected to have greater tolerance and fitness at higher salinities. This created the potential for both salinity and tolerant-sensitive organism interactions to influence communities. We found that community composition was influenced by both direct toxicity and tolerant-sensitive organism interactions. Taxon and context-dependent responses included: (i) direct toxicity effects, irrespective of biotic interactions; (ii) effects that were owing to the addition of tolerant taxa, irrespective of salinity; (iii) toxicity dependent on sensitive-tolerant taxa interactions; and (iv) toxic effects that were increased by interactions. Our results reinforce that ecological processes require consideration when examining toxicant effects within ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Salt in freshwaters: causes, ecological consequences and future prospects’.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Biological interactions mediate context and species-specific sensitivities to salinity

Bray

Reich

Nichols

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…This bias is notable because fish tend to be absent from small and temporary water bodies whereas invertebrate predators are present in essentially all freshwater bodies. Certain invertebrate taxa such as Bythotrephes , Chaoborus , and Notonectidae have received attention, with studies showing they can have important effects on both traits and biomass of lower trophic levels ( Carpenter et al, 1992 ; Carpenter et al, 2001 ; Walsh, Lathrop & Vander Zanden, 2017 ; Ingram & Burns, 2018 ; Horppila et al, 2019 ). However, other studies have found that invertebrate predators have weak to nonexistent top-down effects, and the food web effects of many common and widespread invertebrate predators remain unknown ( e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the fish-Daphnia paradigm: testing the potential for pygmy backswimmers (Neoplea striola) to cause trophic cascades in subtropical ponds

Rakowski

Leibold

2022

PeerJ

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Trophic cascades, or indirect effects of predators on non-adjacent lower trophic levels, are a classic phenomenon in ecology, and are thought to be strongest in aquatic ecosystems. Most research on freshwater trophic cascades focused on temperate lakes, where fish are present and where Daphnia frequently dominate the zooplankton community. These studies identified that Daphnia often play a key role in facilitating trophic cascades by linking fish to algae with strong food web interactions. However, Daphnia are rare or absent in most tropical and subtropical lowland freshwaters, and fish are absent from small and temporary water bodies, where invertebrates fill the role of top predator. While invertebrate predators are ubiquitous in freshwater systems, most have received little attention in food web research. Therefore, we aimed to test whether trophic cascades are possible in small warmwater ponds where Daphnia are absent and small invertebrates are the top predators. We collected naturally occurring plankton communities from small fishless water bodies in central Texas and propagated them in replicate pond mesocosms. We removed zooplankton from some mesocosms, left the plankton community intact in others, and added one of two densities of the predaceous insect Neoplea striola to others. Following an incubation period, we then compared biomasses of plankton groups to assess food web effects between the trophic levels, including whether Neoplea caused a trophic cascade by reducing zooplankton. The zooplankton community became dominated by copepods which prefer large phytoplankton and exhibit a fast escape response. Perhaps due to these qualities of the copepods and perhaps due to other reasons such as high turbidity impairing predation, no evidence for food web effects were found other than somewhat weak evidence for zooplankton reducing large phytoplankton. More research is needed to understand the behavior and ecology of Neoplea, but trophic cascades may generally be weak or absent in fishless low latitude lowland water bodies where Daphnia are rare.

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“…Among invasive alien species, predators tend to have the greatest impacts, compared to other functional groups, on recipient native communities, particularly in small island ecosystems where prey may experience greater predator encounter rates [ 5 , 34 ]. Moreover, there is evidence that predation pressure can interact with changes in habitat area [ 35 ] or environmental temperature [ 36 , 37 ] to modify top-down control of lower trophic levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We, therefore, expected that greatly elevated predation pressure from the introduction of a voracious generalist predator ( Dalotia coriaria Kraatz, Staphylinidae) lacking a shared coevolutionary history with the microarthropod prey populations would interact with patch size [ 35 ] to reduce prey abundance or densities most severely in smaller ecosystem patches. H3: the negative effects of extreme heat-shocks, habitat loss and elevated top-down pressure from an introduced apex predator would interact synergistically [ 24 , 26 , 36 , 37 ] to compound the reductions in microarthropod abundance, densities and body size. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Habitat loss, predation pressure and episodic heat-shocks interact to impact arthropods and photosynthetic functioning of microecosystems

et al. 2021

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Ecosystems face multiple, potentially interacting, anthropogenic pressures that can modify biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Using a bryophyte–microarthropod microecosystem we tested the combined effects of habitat loss, episodic heat-shocks and an introduced non-native apex predator on ecosystem function (chlorophyll fluorescence as an indicator of photosystem II function) and microarthropod communities (abundance and body size). The photosynthetic function was degraded by the sequence of heat-shock episodes, but unaffected by microecosystem patch size or top-down pressure from the introduced predator. In small microecosystem patches without the non-native predator, Acari abundance decreased with heat-shock frequency, while Collembola abundance increased. These trends disappeared in larger microecosystem patches or when predators were introduced, although Acari abundance was lower in large patches that underwent heat-shocks and were exposed to the predator. Mean assemblage body length (Collembola) was reduced independently in small microecosystem patches and with greater heat-shock frequency. Our experimental simulation of episodic heatwaves, habitat loss and non-native predation pressure in microecosystems produced evidence of individual and potentially synergistic and antagonistic effects on ecosystem function and microarthropod communities. Such complex outcomes of interactions between multiple stressors need to be considered when assessing anthropogenic risks for biota and ecosystem functioning.

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Top‐down control by an aquatic invertebrate predator increases with temperature but does not depend on individual behavioral type

Cited by 8 publications

References 46 publications

Biological interactions mediate context and species-specific sensitivities to salinity

Biological interactions mediate context and species-specific sensitivities to salinity

Beyond the fish-Daphnia paradigm: testing the potential for pygmy backswimmers (Neoplea striola) to cause trophic cascades in subtropical ponds

Habitat loss, predation pressure and episodic heat-shocks interact to impact arthropods and photosynthetic functioning of microecosystems

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