Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 20, Issue 7, Pages 852-862Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12779
Keywords
Body size; climate change; food web; interaction strength; paradox of enrichment; phenotypic plasticity; temperature-size rule
Categories
Funding
- Development of postdoc positions on USB project [CZ.1.07/2.3.00/ 30.0049]
- European Social Fund
- state budget of the Czech Republic
- Grant Agency of the Czech Republic [14-29857S]
- French Laboratory of Excellence project 'TULIP' [ANR-10-LABX-41, ANR-11-IDEX-0002-02]
- People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union under REA grant [PCOFUND-GA-2013-609102]
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Body-size reduction is a ubiquitous response to global warming alongside changes in species phenology and distributions. However, ecological consequences of temperature-size (TS) responses for community persistence under environmental change remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the interactive effects of warming, enrichment, community size structure and TS responses on a three-species food chain using a temperature-dependent model with empirical parameterisation. We found that TS responses often increase community persistence, mainly by modifying consumer-resource size ratios and thereby altering interaction strengths and energetic efficiencies. However, the sign and magnitude of these effects vary with warming and enrichment levels, TS responses of constituent species, and community size structure. We predict that the consequences of TS responses are stronger in aquatic than in terrestrial ecosystems, especially when species show different TS responses. We conclude that considering the links between phenotypic plasticity, environmental drivers and species interactions is crucial to better predict global change impacts on ecosystem diversity and stability.
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