Synthesis: A Framework for Predicting the Dark Side of Ecological Subsidies

Kraus, Johanna M.; Wesner, Jeff S.; Walters, David

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49480-3_14

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 125 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In recent years, there has been a proliferation of both theoretical (see Gounand et al, 2018; Loreau et al, 2003; Massol et al, 2011) and empirical (see reviews in Allen & Wesner, 2016; Montagano et al, 2019) studies exploring the local consequences of spatial connections and the impacts of environmental change on ecosystem processes (Larsen et al, 2016). This work has focused primarily on resource subsidies, but the flows of materials and organisms can also serve as vectors for the movement of other substances including contaminants—with unsuspected and often overlooked consequences (e.g., Blais et al, 2007; Kraus et al, 2020; Schiesari et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the rapid changes in biotic and abiotic processes in the Anthropocene, understanding how ecosystem context and ecosystem change interact with contaminant dynamics is critical for predicting contaminant exposure and its consequences on local ecosystems. While there have been several studies that present conceptual models describing feedbacks between ecosystems and contaminants (e.g., see discussion in Schiesari et al, 2018; and Chumchal & Drenner, 2020; Kraus et al, 2020), we lack a more precise mathematical framework coupling conventional ecosystem processes with contaminant dynamics (see Figure 1) and hence, we also lack an understanding of how variation in spatial ecosystem processes may influence contaminant dynamics in local ecosystems (see discussion in Muehlbauer et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Integrating ecosystem and contaminant models to predict the effects of ecosystem fluxes on contaminant dynamics

McLeod,

Leroux,

Rizzuto

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Environmental contamination is one of the major drivers of ecosystem change in the Anthropocene. Toxic chemicals are not constrained to their source of origin as they cross ecosystem boundaries via biotic (e.g., animal migration) and abiotic (e.g., water flow) vectors. Meta‐ecology has led to important insights on how spatial flows or subsidies of matter across ecosystem boundaries can have broad impacts on local and regional ecosystem dynamics but has not yet addressed the dynamics of pollutants in recipient ecosystems. Incorporating meta‐ecosystem processes (i.e., flux of materials across ecosystem boundaries) into contaminant dynamics can elucidate how contaminants may reverberate among local food chains. Here, we derive a modeling framework to predict how spatial ecosystem fluxes can influence contaminant dynamics and how this influence is dependent on the type of ecosystem flux (e.g., herbivore movement vs. abiotic chemical flows). We mix an analytical and numerical approach to analyze our integrative model which couples two subcomponents that have previously been studied independently of each other—an ecosystem model and a contaminant model. We observe an array of dynamics for how chemical concentrations change with increasing nutrient input and loss rate across trophic levels. When we tailor our range of chemical parameter values (e.g., environmental uptake of contaminant and assimilation efficiency of the contaminant) to specific organic chemicals, our results demonstrate that increasing nutrient input rates can lead to trophic dilution in pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls across trophic levels. However, increasing nutrient loss rate causes an increase in the concentrations of chemicals across all trophic levels. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that nutrient recycling is an important ecosystem process impacting contaminant concentrations, generating predictions to be addressed by future empirical studies. Importantly, our model demonstrates the utility of our framework for identifying drivers of contaminant dynamics in connected ecosystems including the importance that (1) ecosystem processes and (2) movement, especially movement of lower trophic levels, have on contaminant concentrations.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating ecosystem and contaminant models to predict the effects of ecosystem fluxes on contaminant dynamics

McLeod,

Leroux,

Rizzuto

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Contaminants have complex effects on communities and food webs in linked aquatic‐terrestrial ecosystems (Clements et al, 2016; Jackson et al, 2021; Kraus et al, 2020; Schiesari et al, 2018). Compounds that are toxic to organisms at the base of the food web can lead to changes in consumer diets or loss of consumer biomass.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Harm and Economic Damages of Chemical Contamination to Linked Aquatic‐Terrestrial Food Webs: A Study‐Design Tool for Practitioners

Kraus

Skrabis

Ciparis

et al. 2023

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Contamination of aquatic ecosystems can have cascading effects on terrestrial consumers by altering the availability and quality of aquatic insect prey. Comprehensive assessment of these indirect food‐web effects of contaminants on natural resources and their associated services necessitates using both ecological and economic tools. In the present study we present an aquatic‐terrestrial assessment tool (AT2), including ecological and economic decision trees, to aid practitioners and researchers in designing contaminant effect studies for linked aquatic‐terrestrial insect‐based food webs. The tool is tailored to address the development of legal claims by the US Department of the Interior's Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Program, which aims to restore natural resources injured by oil spills and hazardous substance releases into the environment. Such cases require establishing, through scientific inquiry, the existence of natural resource injury as well as the determination of the monetary or in‐kind project‐based damages required to restore this injury. However, this tool is also useful to researchers interested in questions involving the effects of contaminants on linked aquatic‐terrestrial food webs. Stylized cases exemplify how application of AT2 can help practitioners and researchers design studies when the contaminants present at a site are likely to lead to injury of terrestrial aerial insectivores through loss of aquatic insect prey and/or dietary contaminant exposure. Designing such studies with ecological endpoints and economic modeling inputs in mind will increase the relevance and cost‐effectiveness of studies, which can in turn improve the outcomes of cases and studies involving the ecological effects of contaminants on food webs. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;00:1–11. Published 2023. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

show abstract

“…In recent years there has been a proliferation of both theoretical (see Loreau et al 2003, Massol et al 2011, Gounand et al 2018) and empirical (see reviews in Wesner 2016, Montagano et al 2019) studies exploring the local consequences of spatial connections and the impacts of environmental change on ecosystem processes (Larsen et al 2016). This work has focused primarily on resource subsidies, but the flows of materials and organisms can also serve as vectors for the movement of other substances including contaminants-with unsuspected, and often overlooked consequences (e.g., Blais et al 2007, Schiesari et al 2018, Kraus et al 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating ecosystem and contaminant models to predict the effects of ecosystem fluxes on contaminant dynamics

McLeod

Leroux

Rizzuto

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pollution is one of the major drivers of ecosystem change in the Anthropocene. Toxic chemicals are not constrained to their source of origin as they cross ecosystem boundaries via biotic (e.g., animal migration) and abiotic (e.g., water flow) vectors. Meta-ecology has led to important insights on how spatial flows or subsidies of matter across ecosystem boundaries can have broad impacts on local and regional ecosystem dynamics but has not yet addressed the dynamics of pollutants. Understanding how these meta-ecosystem processes on contaminant dynamics may reverberate up a food chain is important even if they might be difficult to predict. Here we derive a modelling framework to predict how spatial ecosystem fluxes can influence contaminant dynamics and how the severity of this impact is dependent on the type of ecosystem flux leading to the spatial coupling (e.g., herbivore movement vs abiotic chemical flows). We mix an analytical and numerical approach to analyze our integrative model which couples two distinct sub-components - an ecosystem model and a contaminant model. We observe an array of dynamics for how chemical concentrations change with increasing nutrient input and loss rate across trophic levels. When we tailor our range of chemical parameter values to specific organic chemicals our results demonstrate that increasing nutrient input rates can lead to trophic dilution in pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls across trophic levels. Yet, increasing nutrient loss rate causes an increase in concentrations of chemicals across all trophic levels. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that nutrient recycling is an important ecosystem process impacting contaminant concentrations, generating predictions to be addressed by future empirical studies. Importantly, our model demonstrates the utility of our framework for identifying drivers of contaminant dynamics in connected ecosystems including the importance that a) ecosystem processes, and b) movement, especially movement of lower trophic levels, have on contaminant concentrations. For example, how increasing nutrient loss rate leads to increasing contaminant concentrations, or how movement of lower trophic levels contributes to elevated herbivore contaminant concentrations. This dynamic is particularly relevant given that the flow of matter between ecosystems also serves as a vector for the transport of contaminants.

show abstract

Synthesis: A Framework for Predicting the Dark Side of Ecological Subsidies

Cited by 3 publications

References 125 publications

Integrating ecosystem and contaminant models to predict the effects of ecosystem fluxes on contaminant dynamics

Integrating ecosystem and contaminant models to predict the effects of ecosystem fluxes on contaminant dynamics

Ecological Harm and Economic Damages of Chemical Contamination to Linked Aquatic‐Terrestrial Food Webs: A Study‐Design Tool for Practitioners

Integrating ecosystem and contaminant models to predict the effects of ecosystem fluxes on contaminant dynamics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About