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Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems
07:41

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Published on: July 30, 2019

Climate change in size-structured ecosystems.

Ulrich Brose1, Jennifer A Dunne, Jose M Montoya

  • 1J. F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, , Berliner Strasse 28, 37073 Göttingen, Germany. ubrose@gwdg.de

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|September 26, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Global warming alters ecological communities by shifting body-size distributions, favoring smaller species. These size structure changes significantly impact ecosystem functioning and stability more than direct temperature effects.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Climate Change Biology
  • Ecological Stoichiometry

Background:

  • Rising global temperatures present a significant challenge to species' physiology and ecological interactions.
  • Warming indirectly impacts ecosystems by altering community structure, including species abundances and food-web dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To highlight a novel pathway through which warming indirectly affects ecological communities: changes in body-size distributions.
  • To synthesize research on how temperature influences the size structure of ecological communities.

Main Methods:

  • This theme issue synthesizes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical research.
  • Focuses on the indirect effects of warming via alterations in body-size distributions.

Main Results:

  • Warming shifts body-size distributions towards smaller-bodied species dominance.
  • Effects of temperature on ecosystems are often mediated by changes in size structure, with direct effects being less pronounced.
  • Altered size structure has implications for ecosystem control (top-down and bottom-up) and can lead to novel communities.

Conclusions:

  • Changes in body-size structure represent a dominant indirect effect of warming on ecological communities.
  • Scaling effects of temperature and body size from physiology to ecosystems offers a mechanistic approach for predicting global warming impacts.
  • Understanding size-structured responses is crucial for forecasting future ecosystem changes.