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85 results for “trophic cascade”
Trophic cascade driven by behavioural fine-tuning as naïve prey rapidly adjust to a novel predator
<p>The arrival of novel predators can trigger trophic cascades driven by shifts in prey numbers. Predators also elicit behavioural change in prey populations, via phenotypic plasticity and/or rapid evolution, and such changes may also contribute to trophic cascades. Here we document rapid demographic and behavioural changes in populations of a prey species (grassland melomys <em>Melomys burtoni</em>, a granivorous rodent) following the introduction of a novel marsupial predator (northern quoll <em>Dasyurus hallucatus</em>). Within months of quolls appearing, populations of melomys exhibited reduced survival and population declines relative to control populations. Quoll-invaded populations (<em>n </em>= 4) were also significantly shyer than nearby, quoll-free populations (<em>n </em>= 3) of conspecifics. This rapid but generalised response to a novel threat was replaced over the following two years with more threat-specific antipredator behaviours (i.e. predator-scent aversion). Predator-exposed populations, however, remained more neophobic than predator-free populations throughout the study. These behavioural responses manifested rapidly in changed rates of seed predation by melomys across treatments. Quoll-invaded melomys populations exhibited lower per-capita seed take rates, and rapidly developed an avoidance of seeds associated with quoll scent, with discrimination playing out over a spatial scale of tens of metres. Presumably the significant and novel predation pressure induced by quolls drove melomys populations to fine-tune behavioural responses to be more predator-specific through time. These behavioural shifts could reflect individual plasticity (phenotypic flexibility) in behaviour or may be adaptive shifts from natural selection imposed by quoll predation. Our study provides a rare insight into the rapid ecological and behavioural shifts enacted by prey to mitigate the impacts of a novel predator and shows that trophic cascades can be strongly influenced by behavioural as well as numerical responses.</p>
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade
<p>Understanding trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife communities is a major challenge because these systems are difficult to sample properly. We show how a tradition of nonrandom sampling has confounded this understanding in a textbook system (Yellowstone National Park) where carnivore [<em>Canis lupus</em> (wolf)] recovery is associated with a trophic cascade involving changes in herbivore [<em>Cervus canadensis</em> (elk)] behavior and density that promote plant regeneration. Long-term data indicate a practice of sampling only the tallest young plants overestimated regeneration of overstory aspen (<em>Populus tremuloides</em>) by a factor of 3-8 compared to random sampling because it favored plants taller than the preferred browsing height of elk and overlooked non-regenerating aspen stands. Random sampling described a trophic cascade, but it was weaker than the one that nonrandom sampling described. Our findings highlight the critical importance of basic sampling principles (e.g., randomization) for achieving an accurate understanding of trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife systems.</p>
Dataset: The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following invasive species introduction of a eutrophic lake
<p>This repository includes the setup and output from the analysis ran on Lake Mendota to explore the trophic cascade caused by invasion of spiny water flea in 2010. Scripts to run the model are located under /src, and the processed results for the discussion of the paper are located under /data_processed.</p>
Datasets and R source code of manuscript "From behaviour to complex communities: Resilience to anthropogenic noise in a fish-induced trophic cascade" by Emilie Rojas et al.
<p>Datasets and R source code of manuscript "From behaviour to complex communities: Resilience to anthropogenic noise in a fish-induced trophic cascade" by Emilie Rojas et al.</p>
Data from: Frugivory-mediated trophic cascades: How apex predators can shape the recruitment of a fleshy-fruited tree
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Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade
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Data from: Palmer et al. 2021 “Behaviorally mediated trophic cascade attenuated by prey use of risky places at safe times” Oecologia
The mere threat of predation may incite behavioral changes in prey that lead to community-wide impacts on productivity, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. The paucity of experimental manipulations, however, has contributed to controversy over the strength of this pathway in wide-ranging vertebrate systems. We investigated whether simulated gray wolf (Canis lupus) presence can induce behaviorally-mediated trophic cascades, specifically, whether the ‘fear’ of wolf olfactory cues alone can change deer foraging behavior in ways that affect plants and soils. Wolves were recently removed from the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (Minnesota, USA), such that consumptively mediated predator effects were negligible. At 32 experimental plots, we crossed two nested treatments: wolf urine application and herbivore exclosures. We deployed camera traps to quantify how white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) adjusted their spatiotemporal habitat use, foraging, and vigilance in response to wolf cues and how these behavioral changes affected plant productivity, plant communities, and soil nutrients. Weekly applications of wolf urine significantly altered deer behavior, but deer responses did not cascade to affect plant or soil properties. Deer substantially reduced crepuscular activity at wolf-simulated sites compared to control locations. As wolves in this area predominantly hunted during mornings and evenings, this response potentially allows deer to maximize landscape use by accessing dangerous areas when temporal threat is low. Our experiment suggests that prey may be sensitive to ‘dynamic’ predation risk that is structured across both space and time and, consequentially, prey use of risky areas during safe times may attenuate behaviorally-mediated trophic cascades at the predator–prey interface.
Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top‐down cascades
<p>Learning is a behavioral change based on memory of previous experiences and a ubiquitous phenomenon in animals. Learning effects are commonly life stage- and age-specific. In many animals, early life experiences lead to pervasive and persistent behavioral changes.</p> <p>There is broad consensus that learning has far-reaching implications to biological control. Proximate and ultimate factors of individual learning by parasitoids and true predators are relatively well understood, yet the consequences of learning to higher organizational levels, populations and communities, and top-down trophic cascades are unexplored.</p> <p>We addressed this issue using a tri-trophic system consisting of predatory mites <em>Amblyseius swirskii</em>, Western flower thrips <em>Frankliniella occidentalis</em> and whole common bean plants, <em>Phaseolus vulgaris</em>. <em>F. occidentalis</em> are notorious horticultural pests that are difficult to control. Therefore, practitioners have much to gain by optimizing biological control of thrips.</p> <p>Previous studies have shown that early life experience of thrips by <em>A. swirskii</em> improves foraging on thrips later in life due to decreased prey recognition times and increased predation rates, together enhancing predator fecundity. Here, we hypothesized that early learning by<em> A. swirskii </em>enhances biological control of thrips via immediate and cascading effects. We predicted that release of thrips-experienced predators enhances predator population growth and thrips suppression and reduces plant damage as compared to release of thrips-naïve predators.</p> <p>The behavioral changes brought about by early learning cascaded up to the population and community levels. Thrips-experienced predators caused favorable immediate and cascading effects that could not be compensated for in populations founded by thrips-naïve predators. Populations founded by thrips-experienced predators grew faster, reached higher abundances, were more efficacious in suppressing an emerging thrips population and kept plant damage at lower levels than populations founded by thrips-naïve predators. Plant fecundity correlated negatively with thrips abundance and positively with predatory mite abundance. Improved biological control was mainly due to thrips-experienced founders providing for a head-start in predator population growth and thrips suppression.</p> <p>Synthesis and applications: Our study suggests that learned natural enemies have high potential to optimize augmentative biological control on a larger scale due to favorably modulating organizational upward and trophic top-down cascades.</p>
Trophic cascades alter eco-evolutionary dynamics and body size evolution
<p><span class="MsoIntenseEmphasis"><span>Trait evolution in predator-prey systems can feed back to the dynamics of interacting species as well as cascade to impact the dynamics of indirectly linked species (eco-evolutionary trophic cascades; EETC). A key mediator of trophic cascades is body mass, as it both strongly influences and evolves in response to predator-prey interactions. Here we use Gillespie Eco-Evolutionary Models to explore EETCs resulting from top predator loss and mediated by body mass evolution. Our four trophic level food chain model uses allometric scaling to link body mass to different functions (ecological pleiotropy) and is realistically parameterized from the FORAGE database to mimic the parameter space of a typical freshwater system. To track real-time changes in selective pressures, we also calculated fitness gradients for each trophic level. As predicted, top predator loss generated alternating shifts in abundance across trophic levels, and depending on the nature and strength in changes to fitness gradients, also altered trajectories of body mass evolution. Although more distantly linked, changes in the abundance of top predators still affected the eco-evolutionary dynamics of the basal producers, in part because of their relatively short generation times. Overall, our results suggest that impacts on top predators can set off transient eco-evolutionary trophic cascades with the potential for widespread indirect impacts on food webs.</span></span></p>
Destabilizing effects on a classic tri-trophic oyster-reef cascade
<p>How interactions among multiple predators affect the stability of trophic cascades is a topic of special ecological interest. To examine factors affecting the stability of the classic tri-trophic oyster reef cascade within a different context, configurations of three predators, including the Gulf toadfish, Gulf stone crab, and oystershell mud crab, were manipulated together with either oyster shell or limestone gravel substrate within a multiple predator effects (MPE) experiment. Additionally, a complimentary set of trait-mediated-indirect interaction (TMII) experiments examined the inhibition of oyster consumption relative to mud-crab size and top predator identity in the absence of other cues and factors. The classic tri-trophic cascade formed by the toadfish-mud crab-oyster configuration was potentially weakened by several interactions within the MPE experiment. Consumption of oysters and mud crabs by the intraguild stone crab was undeterred by the presence of toadfish. Although mud crab feeding was inhibited in the presence of both toadfish and stone crabs, estimated non-consumptive effects (NCEs) were weaker for stone crabs in the MPE experiment. Consequently, the total effect was destabilizing when all three predator species were together. Inhibition of mud crab feeding was inversely related to direct predation on mud crabs within the MPE experiment. Complimentary TMII experiments revealed greater inhibition of mud crab feeding in response to stone crabs under sparse conditions. TMII experiments also implied that inhibition of mud crab feeding could have largely accounted for NCEs relative to oysters within the MPE experiment, as opposed to interference by other mud crabs or top predators. An inverse relationship between mud crab size and NCE strength in the TMII experiment disclosed another potentially destabilizing influence on the tri-trophic-cascade. Finally, although habitat complexity generally dampened the consumption of oysters across MPE treatments, complex habitat promoted mud crab feeding in the presence of toadfish alone. This study underscores how ecological interactions can mediate trophic cascades and provides some additional insights into the trophic dynamics of oyster reefs for further testing under natural conditions.</p>
Data from: Selection past impacts the strength of an aquatic trophic cascade
1. In complex food webs, interactions among species in different trophic levels can generate cascading indirect effects that couple top predators with primary producers, thereby affecting ecosystem functioning. Natural selection imposed by top predators on intermediate predators may play a role in shaping the strength of these trophic cascades, but this conjecture remains largely untested. 2. To determine the effects of natural selection on the strength of trophic cascades we conducted a two-part experiment in a four-level aquatic trophic system involving a top predator (fish), an intermediate predator (damselflies), herbivores (zooplankton), and primary producers (algae). We first quantified how predation by fish generated selection on damselfly activity levels after controlling for phenotypic plasticity. We then measured the indirect effects of this selection on primary production (phytoplankton biomass). In both experiments we varied the density of predators, allowing us to elucidate both trait-mediated and density-mediated indirect effects. 3. We found that as fish density increased, damselfly survivorship declined, which generated natural selection favoring less active damselflies. These results are robust after taking into account latent effects of plasticity in response to fish predator cues. The surviving damselflies likely foraged less, freeing herbivores from predation, which in turn reduced primary production. This selection driven trait-mediated indirect effect was only apparent at low damselfly densities, because the consumptive effect of damselflies at high densities overwhelmed the effects of past selection. 4. These results demonstrate that the past action of natural selection can affect the strength of a trophic cascade. Natural selection can therefore act as a mechanism coupling ecological dynamics across trophic levels, which ultimately influences ecosystem functioning.
Data from: Cascading effects of a top predator on intraspecific competition at intermediate and basal trophic levels
1. Predators can impact competition among prey by altering prey density via consumption or by causing prey to modify their traits or foraging behavior. Yet, differences between these two mechanisms may lead to different cascading impacts on lower trophic levels. 2. Using a crab-snail-barnacle rocky intertidal food chain, we tested the effects of predation risk from crabs (top predators) on intraspecific competition among snails (intermediate consumers) and emergent indirect effects on the density of and competition between barnacles (basal resources). 3. The per capita foraging and growth rates of snails declined with high conspecific density. Predation risk from crabs, which caused even larger reductions in snail foraging and growth, weakened competition among snails, whereas a 45% increase in barnacle density had no detectable effect on snail competition. 4. Intraspecific competition between barnacles, however, depended on the interactive effects of barnacle density, snail density, and crab predation risk. Barnacles developed hummocking morphologies as they grew and competed for space. Hummock formation (a proxy for competition) increased as a result of either greater initial barnacle density or reduced snail foraging pressure, but these effects depended on predation risk. 5. The effects of crab predation risk on snail foraging behavior weakened an otherwise strong relationship between barnacle density and hummock development: hummocking increased with barnacle density in the absence of crabs but remained relatively high when crabs were present. In communities with similar final barnacle densities, hummocking was more common in those with crabs than those without crabs. 6. The extent to which predators can drive trophic cascades by suppressing the foraging rates of their prey is highly context-dependent: the positive trait-mediated indirect effect of predators on basal resource abundance is stronger when many prey respond simultaneously to the threat of predation. However, our results demonstrate that top predators can also enhance competition among basal resources even when their indirect effect on resource abundance is relatively weak. Hence, the cascading effects of predators on competition within lower trophic levels may play an important but underappreciated role in the dynamics of basal resource populations and the communities they support.
Data from: Changes in behavior are unable to disrupt a trophic cascade involving a specialist herbivore and its food plant
Changes in ecological conditions can induce changes in behavior and demography of wild organisms, which in turn may influence population dynamics. Black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) nesting in colonies on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) in western Alaska have declined substantially (~50%) since the turn of the century. Black brant are herbivores that rely heavily on Carex subspathacea (Hoppner's sedge) during growth and development. The availability of C. subspathacea affects gosling growth rates, which subsequently affect pre‐ and postfledging survival, as well as size and breeding probability as an adult. We predicted that long‐term declines in C. subspathacea have affected gosling growth rates, despite the potential of behavior to buffer changes in food availability during brood rearing. We used Bayesian hierarchical mixed‐effects models to examine long‐term (1987–2015) shifts in brant behavior during brood rearing, forage availability, and gosling growth rates at the Tutakoke River colony. We showed that locomotion behaviors have increased (β = 0.05, 95% CRI: 0.032–0.068) while resting behaviors have decreased (β = −0.024, 95% CRI: −0.041 to −0.007), potentially in response to long‐term shifts in forage availability and brood density. Concurrently, gosling growth rates have decreased substantially (β = −0.100, 95% CRI: −0.191 to −0.016) despite shifts in behavior, mirroring long‐term declines in the abundance of C. subspathacea (β = −0.191, 95% CRI: −0.355 to −0.032). These results have important implications for individual fitness and population viability, where shifts in gosling behavior putatively fail to mitigate long‐term declines in forage availability.
Data from: Effects of a trophic cascade on a multi-level facilitation cascade
<p>1. The role of cascades in natural communities has been extensively studied, but interactions between trophic and facilitation cascades are unexplored. In the White Sea (65° N) shallow subtidal bivalve primary facilitators provide hard substrate for secondary facilitator barnacles, that in turn provide substrate for conspecifics, ascidians, red algae, and multiple associated organisms, composing a multi-level facilitation cascade. Previous research revealed that predation by the whelk (Boreotrophon clathratus) accounts for ~7% of adult barnacle mortality. Low whelk abundance limits their effect, with barnacles living on conspecifics several times more vulnerable to predation than those living on primary substrate.</p> <p>2. Trophic cascades can selectively shield foundation species from consumers, and hence may affect the structure and length of facilitation cascades. We tested the hypothesis that low abundance of the whelks results from mesopredator predation on their juveniles. Depending on the magnitude of the effect, this would mean that a trophic cascade controls the abundance of barnacles on all substrates or only barnacles living on conspecifics. We also suggested that barnacles on primary substrates and conspecifics facilitate different dependent assemblages.</p> <p>3. We manipulated the presence of crab and shrimp mesopredators in field caging experiments to assess their effect on whelk recruitment. In a field survey we compared the assemblages of sessile macrobenthic organisms associated with barnacles living on different substrates.</p> <p>4. Caging experiments evidenced that crab and shrimp mesopredators reduce whelk recruitment by 4.6 times. Field data showed that barnacles on primary substrate and on conspecifics promote different dependent assemblages including secondary facilitator ascidians.</p> <p>5. Although mesopredators do not shield barnacles from elimination, their absence would restrict them from living on conspecifics. Barnacles on conspecifics are functially different from barnacles on primary substrate, and can be concidered a separate level of the facilitation cascade. Trophic cascades thus can generate community-wide effects on facilitation cascades by affecting their structure and possibly length.</p>
Local adaptation in trait-mediated trophic cascades dataset
<p>Predator-induced changes in prey foraging can indirectly influence community dynamics by increasing the abundance of basal resources via a trait-mediated trophic cascade. The strength of these cascades may be altered by eco-evolutionary relationships between predators and prey, but the role of basal resources has received limited attention. We hypothesized that the strength of trait-mediated trophic cascades may be shaped by selection from trophic levels above and below prey. Our field and laboratory experiments utilized snails (<em>Nucella lapillus</em>)<em> </em>from two regions in the Gulf of Maine (GoM) that vary substantially in basal resource (e.g., barnacles, mussels) availability and invasion history with the predatory green crab, <em>Carcinus maenas</em>. <em>Nucella</em> from both regions were provided with mussels as a basal resource and exposed to the presence or absence of green crab risk cues. In both experiments, <em>Nucella</em> from the northern GoM, where basal resources are scarce, displayed weaker responses to risk cues than southern <em>Nucella</em>. In the lab, however, northern <em>Nucella</em> foraged more than southern snails under risk, but foraging rates among the two regions did not differ without risk. Our results suggest that adaptation to basal resource availability may contribute to geographic variation in the strength of trait-mediated trophic cascades.</p>
Trophic cascade within and across ecosystems: the role of anti-predatory defenses, predator type, and detritus quality
<ol> <li>Species in one ecosystem can indirectly affect multiple biodiversity components and ecosystem functions of adjacent ecosystems. The magnitude of these cross-ecosystem effects depends on the attributes of the organisms involved in the interactions, including traits of the predator, prey and basal resource. However, it is unclear how predators with cross-ecosystem habitat interact with predators with single-ecosystem habitat to affect their shared ecosystem. Also, unknown is how such complex top-down effects may be mediated by the anti-predatory traits of prey and quality of the basal resource.</li> <li>We used the aquatic invertebrate food webs in tank bromeliads as a model system to investigate these questions. We manipulated the presence of a strictly aquatic predator (damselfly larvae) and a predator with both terrestrial and aquatic habitats (spider) and examined effects on survival of prey (detritivores grouped by anti-predator defense), detrital decomposition (of two plant species differing in litter quality), nitrogen flux and host plant growth. To evaluate the direct and indirect effects of each predator type on multiple detritivore groups and ultimately on multiple ecosystem processes, we used piecewise structural equation models. For each response variable, we isolated the contribution of different detritivore groups to overall effects by comparing alternate model formulations.</li> <li>Alone, damselfly larvae and spiders each directly decreased survival of detritivores and caused multiple indirect negative effects on detritus decomposition, nutrient cycling, and host plant growth. However, when predators co-occurred, the spider caused a negative non-consumptive effect on the damselfly larva, diminishing the net direct and indirect top-down effects on the aquatic detritivore community and ecosystem functioning. Both detritivore traits and detritus quality modulated the strength and mechanism of these trophic cascades. Predator interference was mediated by undefended or partially defended detritivores as detritivores with anti-predatory defenses evaded consumption by damselfly larvae but not spiders. Predators and detritivores affected ecosystem decomposition and nutrient cycling only in the presence of high-quality detritus, as the low-quality detritus was consumed more by microbes than invertebrates.</li> <li>The complex responses of this system to predators from both recipient and adjacent ecosystems highlight the critical role of maintaining biodiversity components across multiple ecosystems. </li> </ol>
Algal growth, bumblebee colony and individual development, bee behavior and yield of oilseed rape under a trophic cascade and extreme weather
<p><span>Trophic cascades in the aquatic environment constitute important mechanisms for improving water quality. However, how the presence or non-presence of these trophic cascades may affect interactions across the aquatic-terrestrial interface remains poorly investigated. Pollinators such as bees may be especially vulnerable to changes in water resource quality induced by trophic cascades. Understanding how aquatic trophic cascades affect bees and pollination becomes even more pressing under ongoing climate change due to increased physiological demands for water under extreme weather events.</span><span>In a novel field experiment combining terrestrial and aquatic mesocosms, we aimed to test how changes in water quality induced by an aquatic trophic cascade </span><span>affected foraging and growth of bumblebee colonies as well as foraging of solitary bees. While we expected fish predation to reduce top-down control of zooplankton on phytoplankton and thereby, indirectly, induce increased growth of toxic cyanobacteria</span><span>, we instead found the trophic cascade to induce the formation of algal surface mats that bumblebees used to access water under a severe heat wave and drought. This access to water was associated with higher bumblebee colony reproductive success, growth and weight compared to control colonies with no trophic cascade induced (and hence no algal surface mats). We also found marginal </span><span>but non-significant</span><span> effects on oilseed rape yield, but surprisingly with higher yields in the control treatment where bumblebees could not access water.</span><span>Our results provide new insights on how aquatic trophic cascades can lead to unpredicted ecological interactions across the aquatic-terrestrial interface facilitated by climate change. Our study highlights the importance of water for the fitness of terrestrial ecosystem service providers under altered environmental conditions.</span></p>
A novel trophic cascade between cougars and feral donkeys shapes desert wetlands
<p>Introduced large herbivores have partly filled ecological gaps formed in the late Pleistocene, when many of the Earth's megafauna were driven extinct. However, extant predators are generally considered incapable of exerting top-down influences on introduced megafauna, leading to unusually strong disturbance and herbivory relative to native herbivores.</p> <p>We report on the first documented predation of juvenile feral donkeys (<em>Equus africanus asinus</em>) by cougars (<em>Puma concolor</em>) in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of North America. We then investigated how cougar predation corresponds with differences in feral donkey behavior and associated effects on desert wetlands.</p> <p>Focusing on a feral donkey population in Death Valley National Park, we compared donkey activity patterns and impacts between wetlands with and without cougar predation.</p> <p>Donkeys were primarily diurnal at wetlands with cougar predation, thereby avoiding cougars. However, donkeys were active throughout the day and night at sites without predation. Donkeys were ~87% less active (measured as hours of activity a day) at wetlands with predation (p<0.0001). Sites with predation had reduced donkey disturbance and herbivory, including ~46% fewer access trails, 43% less trampled bare ground, and 192% more canopy cover (PERMANOVA, R<sup>2</sup> = 0.22, p=0.0003).</p> <p>Our study is the first to reveal a trophic cascade involving cougars, feral equids, and vegetation. Cougar predation appears to rewire an ancient food web, with diverse implications for modern ecosystems. Our results suggest that protecting apex predators could have important implications for the ecological effects of introduced megafauna.</p>
Prey naiveté alters the balance of consumptive and non-consumptive predator effects and shapes trophic cascades in freshwater plankton
<p><span>Predators drive trophic cascades by reducing prey biomass and altering prey traits, selecting for prey that exhibit constitutive and induced anti-predator defenses that decrease susceptibility to consumption. These defense traits are often costly, generating a tradeoff between consumptive (CEs) and non-consumptive predator effects (NCEs). The ecological and evolutionary experience that prey share with a given predator may determine their position along this tradeoff curve, affecting the nature and strength of top-down control of ecosystems. Conceptual models predict that predator-experienced prey suffer greater NCEs than predator-naive prey, which suffer stronger CEs and total predator effects (CEs + NCEs), but this has not been tested in diverse prey communities. We tested these predictions by comparing the effects of predation (CEs + NCEs) and predation risk (NCEs only) of planktivorous fish on food web structure in pond mesocosms with diverse natural communities of either predator-naive or predator-experienced zooplankton. Contrary to expectations, top-down control of zooplankton and phytoplankton biomass was strengthened by prey community experience: in systems with experienced relative to naive zooplankton communities both predation risk (NCEs only) and predation (CEs + NCEs) had stronger effects on zooplankton prey biomass and trophic cascades were twice as strong. These results show that the ecological and evolutionary experience of diverse prey communities alters the balance of consumptive and non-consumptive predator effects and influences trophic cascade strength.</span></p>
Data from: Ocean warming undermines the recovery resilience of New England kelp forests following a fishery-induced trophic cascade
<p>Ecological theory predicts that kelp forests structured by trophic cascades should experience a recovery and persistence of their foundation species when herbivores become rare. Yet, climate change may be altering the outcomes of top-down forcing in kelp forests, especially those located in regions that have rapidly warmed in recent decades, such as the Gulf of Maine. Here, using data collected annually from 30+ sites spanning >350 km of coastline, we explored the dynamics of Maine's kelp forests in the ~20 years after a fishery-induced elimination of sea urchin herbivores. Although forests (dominated by <em>Saccharina latissima</em> and <em>Laminaria digitata</em>) had broadly returned to Maine in the late 20th century, we found that forests in northeast Maine have since experienced slow but significant declines in kelp, and forest persistence in the northeast was juxtaposed by a rapid, widespread collapse in the southwest. Forests collapsed in the southwest apparently because ocean warming has – directly and indirectly – made this area inhospitable to kelp. Indeed, when modeling drivers of change using causal techniques from econometrics, we discovered that unusually high summer water temperatures the year prior, unusually high spring water temperatures, and high sea urchin densities each negatively impacted kelp abundance. Furthermore, the relative power and absolute impact of these drivers varied geographically. Our findings reveal that ocean warming is redefining the outcomes of top-down forcing in this system, whereby herbivore removal no longer predictably leads to a sustained dominance of kelp – the ecosystem's foundation – but instead has led to a waning dominance (northeast) or the rise of a novel phase state defined by "turf" algae (southwest). Such findings indicate that limiting climate change and managing for low herbivore abundances will be essential for preventing further loss of the vast forests that still exist in northeastern Maine. They also more broadly highlight that climate change is "rewriting the rules" of nature, and thus that ecological theory and practice must be revised to account for shifting species and processes.</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
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Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
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