2016
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3002
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Drought rewires the cores of food webs

Abstract: 22When we subsequently perturbed the webs by simulating species loss in silico, the rewired drought 23 webs were as robust as the larger, undisturbed webs. Our research unearths previously unknown 24 compensatory dynamics arising from within the core that could underpin food web stability in the 25 face of environmental perturbations. 26Many areas of the world are becoming increasingly prone to drought 1,2 and declining precipitation 27 coupled with rising demand for water could threaten the integrity of fresh… Show more

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Cited by 62 publications
(68 citation statements)
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References 36 publications
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“…First, reaches restored with LW have a higher number of species which may respond differently to fluctuating environmental conditions, and thus could provide higher ecological redundancy than in unrestored reaches (Yachi & Loreau, ). Second, the elevated potential for network rewiring via alternative intermediate nodes and the increase in feeding‐link diversity may help to conserve species and ecosystem processes in restored webs in the face of environmental change (Lu et al., ; Staniczenko, Lewis, Jones, & Reed‐Tsochas, ; Tylianakis, Laliberté, Nielsen, & Bascompte, ). Therefore, river sections rewilded with LW may be both more robust and resilient to environmental stressors.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…First, reaches restored with LW have a higher number of species which may respond differently to fluctuating environmental conditions, and thus could provide higher ecological redundancy than in unrestored reaches (Yachi & Loreau, ). Second, the elevated potential for network rewiring via alternative intermediate nodes and the increase in feeding‐link diversity may help to conserve species and ecosystem processes in restored webs in the face of environmental change (Lu et al., ; Staniczenko, Lewis, Jones, & Reed‐Tsochas, ; Tylianakis, Laliberté, Nielsen, & Bascompte, ). Therefore, river sections rewilded with LW may be both more robust and resilient to environmental stressors.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…When initial connectance was high, there were more nonzero elements in the food web matrix, such that top-down control had a higher probability to remove prey species, which leads to a broader richness gradient (Fig 4). Food-web rewiring along environmental gradients has been often observed [5859]. Our results show that such events may alter richness-connectance relationships by changing richness gradients.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 51%
“…In addition, over half of the differences in edge vs. interior webs were due to shared species interacting differently, which implies that conditions at edges lead generalist parasitoids to more frequently encounter or use a different subset of their potential host niche. Rewiring of interactions in food webs has also been observed in aquatic systems under pressures such as climate change (Blanchard 2015) and drought (Lu et al 2016), reinforcing the idea that various environmental changes can strongly modify species interactions (Tylianakis et al 2008). …”
Section: Accepted Articlementioning
confidence: 83%