Warming alters the metabolic balance of ecosystems
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher,J. Iwan Jones,Mark Trimmer,Guy Woodward,José M. Montoya,José M. Montoya +5 more
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TLDR
The combination of whole-ecosystem manipulative experiments and ecological theory is suggested to be one of the most promising and fruitful research areas to predict the impacts of climate change on key ecosystem services.Abstract:
The carbon cycle modulates climate change, via the regulation of atmospheric CO2, and it represents one of the most important services provided by ecosystems. However, considerable uncertainties remain concerning potential feedback between the biota and the climate. In particular, it is unclear how global warming will affect the metabolic balance between the photosynthetic fixation and respiratory release of CO2 at the ecosystem scale. Here, we present a combination of experimental field data from freshwater mesocosms, and theoretical predictions derived from the metabolic theory of ecology to investigate whether warming will alter the capacity of ecosystems to absorb CO2. Our manipulative experiment simulated the temperature increases predicted for the end of the century and revealed that ecosystem respiration increased at a faster rate than primary production, reducing carbon sequestration by 13 per cent. These results confirmed our theoretical predictions based on the differential activation energies of these two processes. Using only the activation energies for whole ecosystem photosynthesis and respiration we provide a theoretical prediction that accurately quantified the precise magnitude of the reduction in carbon sequestration observed experimentally. We suggest the combination of whole-ecosystem manipulative experiments and ecological theory is one of the most promising and fruitful research areas to predict the impacts of climate change on key ecosystem services.read more
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Climate change and freshwater ecosystems: impacts across multiple levels of organization
TL;DR: It is proposed that an understanding of the connections between these different levels of organization can help to develop a more coherent theoretical framework based on metabolic scaling, foraging theory and ecological stoichiometry, to predict the ecological consequences of climate change.
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Allied attack: climate change and eutrophication
Brian Moss,Sarian Kosten,Mariana Meerhoff,Richard W. Battarbee,Erik Jeppesen,Néstor Mazzeo,Karl E. Havens,Gissell Lacerot,Zhengwen Liu,L. De Meester,Hans W. Paerl,Marten Scheffer +11 more
TL;DR: In this paper, global warming and eutrophication in fresh and coastal waters may mutually reinforce the symptoms they express and thus the problems they cause, which may cause more problems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Reconciling the temperature dependence of respiration across timescales and ecosystem types
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher,Gabriel Yvon-Durocher,Jane M. Caffrey,Alessandro Cescatti,Matteo Dossena,Paul A. del Giorgio,Josep M. Gasol,José M. Montoya,Jukka Pumpanen,Peter A. Staehr,Mark Trimmer,Guy Woodward,Andrew P. Allen +12 more
TL;DR: The sensitivity of ecosystem respiration to seasonal changes in temperature is remarkably similar for diverse environments encompassing lakes, rivers, estuaries, the open ocean and forested and non-forested terrestrial ecosystems, with an average activation energy similar to that of the respiratory complex.
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Breeding crop plants with deep roots: their role in sustainable carbon, nutrient and water sequestration.
TL;DR: Calculations suggest that breeding crop plants with deeper and bushy root ecosystems could simultaneously improve both the soil structure and its steady-state carbon, water and nutrient retention, as well as sustainable plant yields.
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Warming alters the size spectrum and shifts the distribution of biomass in freshwater ecosystems
TL;DR: Overall, warming shifted the distribution of phytoplankton size towards smaller individuals with rapid turnover and low standing biomass, resulting in a reorganization of the biomass structure of the food webs.
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