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Title: Community theory: Testing environmental stress models
Abstract Intensifying climate change and an increasing need for understanding its impacts on ecological communities places new emphasis on testing environmental stress models (ESMs). Using a prior literature search plus references from a more recent search, I evaluated empirical support forESMs, focusing on whether consumer pressure on prey decreased (consumer stress model;CSM) or increased (prey stress model;PSM) with increasing environmental stress. Applying the criterion that testingESMsrequires conducting research at multiple sites along environmental stress gradients, the analysis found thatCSMswere most frequent, with ‘No Effect’ andPSMsoccurring at low but similar frequencies. This result contrasts to a prior survey in which ‘No Effect’ studies were most frequent, thus suggesting that consumers are generally more suppressed by stress than prey. Thus, increased climate change‐induced environmental stress seems likely to reduce, not increase impacts of consumers on prey more often than the reverse  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2050017 1735911
PAR ID:
10499109
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Ecology Letters
Volume:
26
Issue:
8
ISSN:
1461-023X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1314 to 1324
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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