Article
Ecology
Anton M. Potapov, Melanie M. Pollierer, Sandrine Salmon, Vladimir Sustr, Ting-Wen Chen
Summary: The study explores the correlation and complementarity of trophic niche parameters tackled by four complementary methodological approaches, highlighting the importance of the power of method combination in complex natural food webs such as soil ecosystems where omnivore species with cryptic feeding habits coexist.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Angelos Amyntas, Emilio Berti, Benoit Gauzens, Georg Albert, Wentao Yu, Alexandra S. Werner, Nico Eisenhauer, Ulrich Brose
Summary: Species-rich communities exhibit higher levels of ecosystem functioning compared with species-poor ones, and this positive relationship strengthens over time. One proposed explanation for this phenomenon is the reduction of niche overlap among plants or animals, which corresponds to increased complementarity and reduced competition. Our findings reveal that increased niche complementarity of plants can steepen the diversity-function relationships, while increasing complementarity among animals during community assembly can also have a positive effect but with considerable variability.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Veronika Neidel, Daniela Sint, Corinna Wallinger, Michael Traugott
Summary: Using prey RNA as a target molecule allows for differentiation between scavenging and fresh prey consumption, overcoming a weakness in molecular diet analysis.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Tina Luedecke, Jennifer N. Leichliter, Vera Aldeias, Marion K. Bamford, Dora Biro, David R. Braun, Cristian Capelli, Jonathan D. Cybulski, Nicolas N. Duprey, Maria J. Ferreira da Silva, Alan D. Foreman, Joerg M. Habermann, Gerald H. Haug, Felipe Martinez, Jacinto Mathe, Andreas Mulch, Daniel M. Sigman, Hubert Vonhof, Rene Bobe, Susana Carvalho, Alfredo Martinez-Garcia
Summary: Analysis of stable isotope ratios in tooth enamel can help reconstruct the feeding behavior of animals and trophic interactions in food webs. Tooth enamel, being the hardest and most mineralized vertebrate tissue, is highly resistant to chemical alteration and serves as an important archive for biologists and paleontologists. In this study, the combined measurements of stable isotope ratios (δC-13, δN-15, and δO-18) in tooth enamel provide ecological information about trophic levels, dietary niche, and resource consumption in the Gorongosa National Park ecosystem.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Elena L. Zvereva, Mikhail Kozlov
Summary: The intensity of trophic interactions generally decreases with increasing elevation, but this decrease is not significant at high latitudes and for interactions involving endothermic organisms. The effects of elevation and latitude on herbivory, carnivory, and parasitism vary.
Article
Ecology
Bryan M. Maitland, Frank J. Rahel
Summary: Changing ecological conditions along environmental gradients influence patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Aquatic food webs along stream gradients were studied to understand how networks of interacting species respond to these changes. The study found that while increasing ecosystem size, productivity, and species richness influenced trophic diversity, there was a nonlinear relationship between trophic diversity and the gradient. Trophic redundancy within the fish community decreased downstream along the gradient, but this relationship varied with fish species richness. Overall, this study highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms that shape food web properties along gradients and their implications for ecosystem function in the face of environmental change.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Han -Yang Lin, Mark John Costello
Summary: This study compared the latitudinal gradients of body size and trophic level of 5,619 marine fish and found that average body size and trophic level were smaller and lower in warmer latitudes, and larger and higher in high latitudes except for the Southern Ocean. Fish species with trophic levels <= 2.80 were dominant in warmer environments. The differences in body size and trophic level between polar regions were attributed to the greater environmental heterogeneity of the Arctic compared to Antarctica. Additionally, fish species' mean maximum body size declined with depth due to decreased dissolved oxygen. Temperature and oxygen are the primary factors affecting marine fishes' biogeography and biological traits at a global scale.
Article
Ecology
Petra Horka, Zuzana Musilova, Katerina Holubova, Katerina Jandova, Jaroslav Kukla, Jitka Rutkayova, John Iwan Jones
Summary: This study examined the effect of environmental factors on trophic interactions within river fish assemblages using stable isotope ratios. The results showed that nutrient loading significantly influenced the overall trophic niche and position of species, suggesting the importance of eutrophication for fish assemblages.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Elena L. Zvereva, Mikhail V. Kozlov
Summary: The study found that herbivory and carnivory decrease while parasitism increases from high to low latitudes, with the trend more pronounced above 50-60 degrees; additionally, the decrease in biodiversity towards the poles is generally stronger than that of herbivory and carnivory.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wander Ribeiro Ferreira, Renan de Souza Rezende, Renato Tavares Martins, Jose Francisco Goncalves Jr, Neusa Hamada, Marcos Callisto
Summary: We evaluated the effect of predation risk on leaf-litter consumption and case-building in Phylloicus larvae from three Brazilian biomes. The larvae from different biomes used leaf disks in different proportions for case-building and consumption. Our results indicate that predation risk can affect the behavior of Phylloicus, potentially leading to top-down effects on leaf-litter processing in Neotropical headwater streams.
Article
Ecology
Katerina Sam, Leonardo Re Jorge, Bonny Koane, Pita K. Amick, Elise Sivault
Summary: The exclusion of flying vertebrate predators led to a significant increase in both arthropod density and herbivory damage. The effect of ant exclusion on arthropod density and leaf damage was not significant. The presence of insectivorous flying vertebrates is important for maintaining plant health.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Gema Hernan, Maria J. Ortega, Jeremy Henderson, Josep Alos, Katharyn Boyer, Stephanie Cimon, Vincent Combes, Mathieu Cusson, Clara M. Hereu, Margot Hessing-Lewis, Kevin Hovel, Pablo Jorgensen, Stephanie Kiriakopolos, Nicole Kollars, Mary I. O Connor, Jeanine Olsen, Pamela L. Reynolds, Jennifer Ruesink, Erin Voigt, Fiona Tomas
Summary: This study found that both latitude and resource availability have significant impacts on plant defense strategies against herbivory, and that plant defenses may not linearly respond to increased herbivory pressure.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jorge Garcia-Marquez, Alba Galafat, Antonio Jesus Vizcaino, Andre Barany, Juan Antonio Martos-Sitcha, Juan Miguel Mancera, Gabriel Acien, Felix L. Figueroa, Francisco Javier Alarcon, Salvador Arijo, Roberto Teofilo Abdala-Diaz
Summary: This study evaluated the effects of moderate dietary supplementation with the green microalga Chlorella fusca on growth, metabolism, and digestive functionality in juvenile thick-lipped grey mullet. The results showed that fish fed with the microalgae-supplemented diet had improved growth performance, fatty acid profile, metabolic response, and increased intestinal digestive and absorptive capacity.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Peter J. Flood, William F. Loftus, Joel C. Trexler
Summary: We examined the effects of temporal and spatial factors on consumers' diet, trophic position, trophic niche, and food-web topology in a subtropical wetland. We found that trophic dispersion and trophic displacement were common, while shifts in trophic position were rare. Trophic dynamics were primarily driven by piscivory, detrital consumption, and diet plasticity across habitats and seasons. The flood pulse in the wetland altered food-web topology and resulted in trophic-niche overlap among native and invasive fishes.
Article
Ecology
Meike Koester, Carolin Frenzel, Georg Becker, Rene Sahm
Summary: This study investigates the diet of Chinese mitten crab (CMC) and finds that its impact on the benthic fauna of the Lower Rhine may have been underestimated. The study shows that easily accessible macroinvertebrate species contribute significantly to the diet of CMC, contradicting the findings of gut content analyses.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Martin Sondergaard, Anders Nielsen, Christian Skov, Henrik Baktoft, Kasper Reitzel, Theis Kragh, Thomas Alexander Davidson
Summary: Temporary summer stratification is a common but easily overlooked phenomenon in shallow lakes. In this study, we used high frequency measurements and monitoring to investigate the dynamics of temporary stratification in Lake Ormstrup, Denmark. The results showed that temporary stratification occurred multiple times each summer, but its duration varied between years.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ying Wang, Xia Jiang, Yan-Ling Li, Li-Juan Yang, Ye-Hao Li, Ying Liu, Long Zhou, Pu-Ze Wang, Xu Zhao, Hai-Jun Wang, Erik Jeppesen, Ping Xie
Summary: Eutrophication and salinization interact to negatively affect freshwater ecosystems. In a study of eight lakes in Southwest China, we found that phytoplankton dynamics were more pronounced in shallow lakes and peaked in the warm season. Total nitrogen and total phosphorus were positively correlated with species number, density, and biomass, but this correlation weakened at high TP and low N:P ratio, indicating nitrogen limitation. Salinity showed a unimodal relationship with phytoplankton characteristics, peaking at 400-1000 mu S/cm (Cond). Different dominant taxa (cyanobacteria and chlorophyta) responded differently to nitrogen and salinity, with chlorophyta dominating at low TN and cyanobacteria dominating at high TN and Cond.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Sicheng Yin, Ruohan Huang, Ni Wang, Changxing Li, Erik Jeppesen, Liqing Wang, Wei Zhang
Summary: Eutrophication and global warming accelerate the growth of cyanobacterial blooms and the spread of invasive cyanobacterial species. This study found that phosphorus deficiency inhibits the growth of C. ovalisporum, while multiple pulses of phosphorus promote its growth and phosphorus absorption. Additionally, C. ovalisporum secretes more exopolysaccharides and alkaline phosphatase under phosphorus deficiency. These findings provide new insights into the outbreak and dispersal strategies of C. ovalisporum.
Article
Plant Sciences
Chiara Esposito, Thomas P. A. Nijman, Annelies J. Veraart, Joachim Audet, Eti E. Levi, Torben L. Lauridsen, Thomas A. Davidson
Summary: Shallow lakes produce and emit significant amounts of methane, and methane-oxidizing bacteria play a role in reducing these emissions. However, the role of aquatic plants in methane oxidation is not well understood. This study compared methane oxidation rates and bacteria abundance associated with different types of aquatic plants. The results showed that various plant types have different rates of methane oxidation, and high biomass of macrophytes is associated with reduced methane concentration in the water.
Article
Ecology
Barbara Angelio Quirino, Martin Sondergaard, Torben Linding Lauridsen, Liselotte Sander Johansson, Rosemara Fugi, Sidinei Magela Thomaz, Fernando Miranda Lansac-Toha, Erik Jeppesen
Summary: Fish community structure in shallow lakes is influenced by macrophyte cover, which provides important habitats and food sources. This study examined the relationships between fish and macrophytes at both lake and point scales in 88 Danish shallow lakes. The results showed negative relationships between macrophyte cover and fish abundance and biomass, with stronger effects at the point scale. Chlorophyll a, a measure of primary productivity, was positively related to fish abundance, except for certain fish species. The findings highlight the complex interactions between fish and macrophytes, which are influenced by lake characteristics.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Kenneth Thoro Martinsen, Emil Kristensen, Lars Baastrup-Spohr, Martin Sondergaard, Henrik Carl, Erik Jeppesen, Kaj Sand-Jensen, Theis Kragh
Summary: Freshwater ecosystems have suffered from a significant decrease in biodiversity due to eutrophication and habitat loss. However, by re-establishing ecosystems or creating new lakes, nutrients removal, biodiversity, and recreation can be improved. Through the use of structural equation modeling, the impact of environmental variables and landscape features on fish species richness and composition in new and natural lakes in Denmark was investigated. Fish species richness is influenced by basin elevation, lake area, and salinity at the basin outlet.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Yuanrui Li, Juan Tao, Yunlin Zhang, Kun Shi, Junjun Chang, Min Pan, Lirong Song, Erik Jeppesen, Qichao Zhou
Summary: Climate change and urbanization have complex interactions with phytoplankton blooms (PBs) in Lake Dianchi. Our study found that PBs in the lake had advanced initiation and longer duration, likely due to increased water temperature and reduced nutrient concentrations. However, the area and severity of PBs showed a decreasing trend, possibly attributed to increased wind speed and/or reduced nutrient levels. Urbanization, with the enhanced land surface temperature, could alter the thermodynamic characteristics and regulate the phenology and severity of PBs in the lake.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
M. Cuenca-Cambronero, M. Blicharska, J. -a. Perrin, T. A. Davidson, B. Oertli, M. Lago, M. Beklioglu, M. Meerhoff, M. Arim, J. Teixeira, L. De Meester, J. Biggs, J. Robin, B. Martin, H. M. Greaves, C. D. Sayer, P. Lemmens, D. Boix, T. Mehner, M. Bartrons, S. Brucet
Summary: Ponds and pondscapes play a crucial role in providing multiple benefits to both biodiversity and humans. However, they are often overlooked as Nature-based Solutions and there is a lack of knowledge on how to manage and restore them to maximize their potential in climate change resilience. To address this, it is important to generate and integrate various knowledge domains. Therefore, evidence-based guidance is needed to support the broader use of ponds.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Margenny Barrios, Giancarlo Tesitore, Maite Burwood, Barbara Suarez, Mariana Meerhoff, Jimena Alonso, Blanca Rios Touma, Franco Teixeira de Mello
Summary: We assessed the potential effects of Eucalyptus afforestation on water quality and macroinvertebrate assemblage. Nutrient concentrations, conductivity, and total dissolved solids showed positive responses to increasing afforestation, but the responses varied among seasons. Macroinvertebrate metrics showed negative and positive responses to afforestation, with densities of sensitive taxa decreasing and others increasing. The use of water quality parameters in combination with macroinvertebrates assemblage contributes to managing streams affected by afforestation.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Erik Jeppesen, Thomas A. Davidson, Mariana Meerhoff, Luc De Meester, Ivan Gonzalez-Bergonzoni, Nicolas Vidal, Hartmut Arndt, Klaus Juergens, Ruben Sommaruga, Korhan Ozkan, Torben L. Lauridsen, Sh Tserenpil
Summary: With the retreat of glaciers, new ponds and lakes are formed, which become more productive as vegetation develops. Our study in West Greenland found that older lakes had higher nutrient concentrations and organic matter content, as well as higher biomass and richness of certain aquatic organisms. The food web in the older lakes was more complex, with a longer food chain and higher taxonomic diversity, suggesting a succession process following glacial retreat.
Article
Ecology
Kaarina Weckstrom, Jan Weckstrom, Juliane Wischnewski, Thomas A. Davidson, Torben L. Lauridsen, Frank Landkildehus, Kirsten S. Christoffersen, Erik Jeppesen
Summary: With the help of paleolimnology, the relationship between diatoms and environmental drivers in the Arctic lakes and ponds of Greenland was explored. The study found that climate and lake ontogeny were the main factors determining diatom communities. The species diversity declined towards the North, and diatoms were proven to be an excellent proxy for climate-mediated lake ecosystem change in the Arctic.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Xing Rao, Jichong Lu, Ping Zhong, Xiufeng Zhang, Yali Tang, Jinlei Yu, Hu He, Erik Jeppesen, Zhengwen Liu
Summary: In temperate shallow lakes, submerged macrophytes enhance zooplankton grazing and maintain a clear-water state. However, the role of macrophytes for zooplankton and their grazing potential in tropical lakes remains unclear. Our study in a tropical lake in China found that the dominance of copepods differed between basins, with cyclopoids dominating in the algal basin and calanoids in the macrophyte basins. The biomass ratios of calanoid:copepod and zooplankton:phytoplankton were higher in the macrophyte basins. Our results suggest that restoration measures involving macrophyte transplantation and fish removal can reduce fish predation and maintain clear-water state in tropical lakes, although top-down control may be weaker compared to temperate lakes.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Erik Jeppesen, Miguel Canedo-Arguelles, Sally Entrekin, S. S. S. Sarma, Judit Padisak
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Karen Portilla, Elizabeth Velarde, Tania Ona, Ellen Decaestecker, Franco Teixeira de Mello, Koenraad Muylaert
Summary: This study investigated the behavioral response of the local Daphnia pulex in the high-elevation shallow Lake Yahuarcocha in Peru to an exotic submerged macrophyte and an exotic fish. The results showed that Daphnia pulex strongly avoided the macrophyte, indicating that it does not provide refuge from fish predation.