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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

Global Change Asymmetrically Rewires Ecosystems.

Charlotte A Ward¹, Tyler D Tunney^1,2, Ian Donohue³

¹University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Ecology Letters

|July 10, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Global change alters food webs through asymmetric rewiring, where human pressures unevenly affect energy pathways. Understanding this rewiring is crucial for ecosystem resilience and services.

Keywords:

asymmetry ecosystem function food web global change habitat coupling resilience rewiring

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Area of Science:

Ecology and Environmental Science
Global Change Biology
Ecosystem Dynamics

Background:

Global change presents complex challenges to understanding human impacts on ecosystem processes.
A significant knowledge gap exists in how global change drivers broadly affect food webs.
Existing research documents food web shifts due to anthropogenic pressures, but a general synthesis is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

To synthesize existing research on how global change drivers impact food web structure across diverse ecosystems.
To identify and explain the phenomenon of asymmetric rewiring in food webs.
To model the consequences of asymmetric rewiring on ecosystem resilience and functions.

Main Methods:

Review of studies utilizing stable isotope analysis, energetic food web modeling, and gut content analysis.
Analysis of diverse ecosystems to identify patterns of food web response to global change.
Development of a simple food web model to simulate the effects of asymmetric rewiring.

Main Results:

Asymmetric rewiring, where anthropogenic pressures differentially alter energy pathways, is a prevalent response in food webs.
Examples from literature illustrate the mechanisms and prevalence of asymmetric rewiring across ecosystems.
Food web modeling demonstrates that asymmetric rewiring significantly alters ecosystem resilience and functions like production.

Conclusions:

A general and remarkably consistent response in food web structure to global change has been uncovered.
Understanding asymmetric rewiring is essential for predicting and mitigating the impacts of global change on biodiversity.
Further research is needed to fully grasp the implications of asymmetric rewiring for ecosystem services vital to human societies.