Consequences of climate-induced range expansions on multiple ecosystem functions
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Balik, Jared A.
Greig, Hamish S.
Taylor, Brad W.
Wissinger, Scott A.
Date Issued
April 10, 2023
Abstract
Climate-driven species range shifts and expansions are changing community composition, yet the functional consequences in natural systems are mostly unknown. By combining a 30- year survey of subalpine pond larval caddisfly assemblages with species-specific functional traits (nitrogen and phosphorus excretion, and detritus processing rates), we tested how three upslope range expansions affected species’ relative contributions to caddisfly-driven nutrient supply and detritus processing. A subdominant resident species (Ag. deflata) consistently made large relative contributions to caddisfly-driven nitrogen supply throughout all range expansions, thus “regulating” the caddisfly-driven nitrogen supply. Whereas, phosphorus supply and detritus processing were regulated by the dominant resident species (L. externus) until the third range expansion (by N. hostilis). Since the third range expansion, N. hostilis’s relative contribution to caddisfly-driven phosphorus supply increased, displacing L. externus’s role in regulating caddisfly-driven phosphorus supply. Meanwhile, detritus processing contributions became similar among the dominant resident, subdominant residents, and range expanding species. Total ecosystem process rates did not change throughout any of the range expansions. Thus, shifts in species’ relative functional roles may occur before shifts in total ecosystem process rates, and changes in species’ functional roles may stabilize processes in ecosystems undergoing change.
Journal
Communications Biology
Department
Biology
Environmental Science / Studies
Citation
Balik, J.A., Greig, H.S., Taylor, B.W. et al. Consequences of climate-induced range expansions on multiple ecosystem functions. Commun Biol 6, 390 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04673-w
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Version of Article
Published article
DOI
10.1038/s42003-023-04673-w
ISSN
2399-3642
Rights
© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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