Analysis of trophic interactions reveals highly plastic response to climate change in a tri-trophic High-Arctic ecosystem

Lars O. Mortensen; Niels Martin Schmidt; Toke T. Høye; Christian Damgaard; Mads C. Forchhammer

doi:10.1007/s00300-015-1872-z

Analysis of trophic interactions reveals highly plastic response to climate change in a tri-trophic High-Arctic ecosystem

Lars O. Mortensen^*, Niels Martin Schmidt, Toke T. Høye, Christian Damgaard, Mads C. Forchhammer

^*Corresponding author for this work

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

As a response to current climate changes, individual species have changed various biological traits, illustrating an inherent phenotypic plasticity. However, as species are embedded in an ecological network characterised by multiple consumer–resource interactions, ecological mismatches are likely to arise when interacting species do not respond homogeneously. The approach of biological networks analysis calls for the use of structural equation modelling (SEM), a multidimensional analytical setup that has proven particularly useful for analysing multiple interactions across trophic levels. Here we apply SEM to a long-term dataset from a High-Arctic ecosystem to analyse how phenological responses across three trophic levels are coupled to snowmelt patterns and how changes may cascade through consumer–resource interactions. Specifically, the model included the effect of snowmelt on a High-Arctic tri-trophic system of flowers, insects and waders (Charadriiformes), with latent factors representing phenology (timing of life history events) and performance (abundance or reproduction success) for each trophic level. The effects derived from the model demonstrated that the time of snowmelt directly affected plant and arthropod phenology as well as the performance of all included trophic levels. Additionally, timing of snowmelt appeared to indirectly influence wader phenology as well as plant, arthropod and wader performance through effects on adjacent trophic levels and lagged effects. The results from the tri-trophic community presented here emphasise that effects of climate on species in consumer–resource systems may propagate through trophic levels.

Original language	English
Journal	Polar Biology
Volume	39
Issue number	8
Pages (from-to)	1467-1478
Number of pages	12
ISSN	0722-4060
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1872-z
Publication status	Published - 2016

Keywords

Arctic ecosystem
Arthropods
Greenland
Performance
Phenology
Plants
Structural equation modelling
Trophic interactions
Trophic mismatch
Waders

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s00300-015-1872-z

Cite this

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title = "Analysis of trophic interactions reveals highly plastic response to climate change in a tri-trophic High-Arctic ecosystem",

abstract = "As a response to current climate changes, individual species have changed various biological traits, illustrating an inherent phenotypic plasticity. However, as species are embedded in an ecological network characterised by multiple consumer–resource interactions, ecological mismatches are likely to arise when interacting species do not respond homogeneously. The approach of biological networks analysis calls for the use of structural equation modelling (SEM), a multidimensional analytical setup that has proven particularly useful for analysing multiple interactions across trophic levels. Here we apply SEM to a long-term dataset from a High-Arctic ecosystem to analyse how phenological responses across three trophic levels are coupled to snowmelt patterns and how changes may cascade through consumer–resource interactions. Specifically, the model included the effect of snowmelt on a High-Arctic tri-trophic system of flowers, insects and waders (Charadriiformes), with latent factors representing phenology (timing of life history events) and performance (abundance or reproduction success) for each trophic level. The effects derived from the model demonstrated that the time of snowmelt directly affected plant and arthropod phenology as well as the performance of all included trophic levels. Additionally, timing of snowmelt appeared to indirectly influence wader phenology as well as plant, arthropod and wader performance through effects on adjacent trophic levels and lagged effects. The results from the tri-trophic community presented here emphasise that effects of climate on species in consumer–resource systems may propagate through trophic levels.",

keywords = "Arctic ecosystem, Arthropods, Greenland, Performance, Phenology, Plants, Structural equation modelling, Trophic interactions, Trophic mismatch, Waders",

author = "Mortensen, {Lars O.} and Schmidt, {Niels Martin} and H{\o}ye, {Toke T.} and Christian Damgaard and Forchhammer, {Mads C.}",

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T1 - Analysis of trophic interactions reveals highly plastic response to climate change in a tri-trophic High-Arctic ecosystem

AU - Mortensen, Lars O.

AU - Schmidt, Niels Martin

AU - Høye, Toke T.

AU - Damgaard, Christian

AU - Forchhammer, Mads C.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - As a response to current climate changes, individual species have changed various biological traits, illustrating an inherent phenotypic plasticity. However, as species are embedded in an ecological network characterised by multiple consumer–resource interactions, ecological mismatches are likely to arise when interacting species do not respond homogeneously. The approach of biological networks analysis calls for the use of structural equation modelling (SEM), a multidimensional analytical setup that has proven particularly useful for analysing multiple interactions across trophic levels. Here we apply SEM to a long-term dataset from a High-Arctic ecosystem to analyse how phenological responses across three trophic levels are coupled to snowmelt patterns and how changes may cascade through consumer–resource interactions. Specifically, the model included the effect of snowmelt on a High-Arctic tri-trophic system of flowers, insects and waders (Charadriiformes), with latent factors representing phenology (timing of life history events) and performance (abundance or reproduction success) for each trophic level. The effects derived from the model demonstrated that the time of snowmelt directly affected plant and arthropod phenology as well as the performance of all included trophic levels. Additionally, timing of snowmelt appeared to indirectly influence wader phenology as well as plant, arthropod and wader performance through effects on adjacent trophic levels and lagged effects. The results from the tri-trophic community presented here emphasise that effects of climate on species in consumer–resource systems may propagate through trophic levels.

AB - As a response to current climate changes, individual species have changed various biological traits, illustrating an inherent phenotypic plasticity. However, as species are embedded in an ecological network characterised by multiple consumer–resource interactions, ecological mismatches are likely to arise when interacting species do not respond homogeneously. The approach of biological networks analysis calls for the use of structural equation modelling (SEM), a multidimensional analytical setup that has proven particularly useful for analysing multiple interactions across trophic levels. Here we apply SEM to a long-term dataset from a High-Arctic ecosystem to analyse how phenological responses across three trophic levels are coupled to snowmelt patterns and how changes may cascade through consumer–resource interactions. Specifically, the model included the effect of snowmelt on a High-Arctic tri-trophic system of flowers, insects and waders (Charadriiformes), with latent factors representing phenology (timing of life history events) and performance (abundance or reproduction success) for each trophic level. The effects derived from the model demonstrated that the time of snowmelt directly affected plant and arthropod phenology as well as the performance of all included trophic levels. Additionally, timing of snowmelt appeared to indirectly influence wader phenology as well as plant, arthropod and wader performance through effects on adjacent trophic levels and lagged effects. The results from the tri-trophic community presented here emphasise that effects of climate on species in consumer–resource systems may propagate through trophic levels.

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KW - Arthropods

KW - Greenland

KW - Performance

KW - Phenology

KW - Plants

KW - Structural equation modelling

KW - Trophic interactions

KW - Trophic mismatch

KW - Waders

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JO - Polar Biology

JF - Polar Biology

IS - 8

ER -

Analysis of trophic interactions reveals highly plastic response to climate change in a tri-trophic High-Arctic ecosystem

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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