期刊
ECOLOGY
卷 103, 期 2, 页码 -出版社
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3587
关键词
community size spectra; energy transfer; food webs; stable isotopes; water quality
类别
资金
- Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness SPACESTREAM [CGL2017-88640-C2-1-R, CGL2017-88640-C2-2-R]
- UC Berkeley new faculty funds
- NSF [1802714]
- GLOBAQUA [FP7-ENV-2013-603629]
- CERCA program
- CLIMALERT [PCIN-2017- 068]
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1802714] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1802714] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
The impacts of urban wastewater pollution on stream food webs are complex, potentially leading to energy limitation for consumers and the extinction of pollution-sensitive top predators. Understanding the indirect and direct mechanisms can help anticipate the effects of changes in water quality and quantity on the environment, which are key signatures of global change.
Impacts of environmental stressors on food webs are often difficult to predict because trophic levels can respond in divergent ways, and biotic interactions may dampen or amplify responses. Here we studied food-web-level impacts of urban wastewater pollution, a widespread source of degradation that can alter stream food webs via top-down and bottom-up processes. Wastewater may (1) subsidize primary producers by decreasing nutrient limitation, inducing a wide-bottomed trophic pyramid. However, (2) wastewater may also reduce the quality and diversity of resources, which could decrease energy transfer efficiency by reducing consumer fitness, leading to predator starvation. Additionally, (3) if higher trophic levels are particularly sensitive to pollution, primary consumers could be released from predation pressure. We tested these hypotheses in 10 pairs of stream sites located upstream and downstream of urban wastewater effluents with different pollutant levels. We found that wastewater pollution reduced predator richness by similar to 34%. Community size spectra (CSS) slopes were steeper downstream than upstream of wastewater effluents in all except one impact site where predators became locally extinct. Further, variation in downstream CSS slopes were correlated with pollution loads: the more polluted the stream, the steeper the CSS. We estimate that wastewater pollution decreased energy transfer efficiencies to primary consumers by similar to 70%, limiting energy supply to predators. Additionally, traits increasing vulnerability to chemical pollution were overrepresented among predators, which presented compressed trophic niches (delta N-15-delta C-13) downstream of effluents. Our results show that wastewater pollution can impact stream food webs via a combination of energy limitation to consumers and extirpation of pollution-sensitive top predators. Understanding the indirect (biotically mediated) vs. direct (abiotic) mechanisms controlling responses to stress may help anticipating impacts of altered water quantity and quality, key signatures of global change.
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