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Quantifying co-extinctions and ecosystem service vulnerability in coastal ecosystems experiencing climate warming
Lexi N Wilkes1,2, Allison K Barner3, Aislyn A Keyes1,4
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Global Change Biology
|July 22, 2024
Summary
Climate change threatens ecosystems and vital ecosystem services. Our study reveals that services collapse before food webs due to vulnerable, key species loss, highlighting indirect climate impacts.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Climate Change Biology
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Climate change significantly impacts ecosystems and the services they provide to humans.
- Prior research often overlooks indirect climate change effects on species interactions and ecosystem stability.
- Species loss due to climate change can trigger cascading 'co-extinctions,' especially for critical food web components.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a framework for analyzing climate change vulnerability, food web roles, and ecosystem service provision.
- To investigate how climate-driven species extinctions affect food web persistence and ecosystem services.
- To assess the interconnectedness of species' climate vulnerability, ecological roles, and service provision in rocky intertidal ecosystems.
Main Methods:
- Examined eight empirical rocky intertidal food webs to assess robustness against climate-driven extinctions.
- Analyzed relationships between species' vulnerability to climate change, their connectivity in food webs, and their role in providing ecosystem services.
- Modeled the impact of species loss on both food web structure and ecosystem service delivery.
Main Results:
- Species crucial for ecosystem services were found to be more vulnerable to climate change and more connected within food webs.
- Ecosystem service provision collapsed at lower levels of species loss compared to overall food web stability.
- Highly connected species were not necessarily the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Conclusions:
- Food webs exhibit greater resilience to climate change than the ecosystem services they support.
- Integrating species' food web roles, service provision, and climate vulnerability aids in predicting co-extinction impacts.
- Enhanced data collection on species interaction networks and climate vulnerability is crucial for accurate ecological forecasting.
Keywords:
climate changeco‐extinctionsecological networksecosystem servicesspecies roles in food websstabilityMore Related Videos
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