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1. Understanding temporal variability across trophic levels and spatial scales in freshwater ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4219  

   Siqueira, Tadeu; Hawkins, Charles P.; Olden, Julian D.; Tonkin, Jonathan; Comte, Lise; Saito, Victor S.; Anderson, Thomas L.; Barbosa, Gedimar P.; Bonada, Núria; Bonecker, Claudia C.; et al (February 2024, Ecology)

   Abstract A tenet of ecology is that temporal variability in ecological structure and processes tends to decrease with increasing spatial scales (from locales to regions) and levels of biological organization (from populations to communities). However, patterns in temporal variability across trophic levels and the mechanisms that produce them remain poorly understood. Here we analyzed the abundance time series of spatially structured communities (i.e., metacommunities) spanning basal resources to top predators from 355 freshwater sites across three continents. Specifically, we used a hierarchical partitioning method to disentangle the propagation of temporal variability in abundance across spatial scales and trophic levels. We then used structural equation modeling to determine if the strength and direction of relationships between temporal variability, synchrony, biodiversity, and environmental and spatial settings depended on trophic level and spatial scale. We found that temporal variability in abundance decreased from producers to tertiary consumers but did so mainly at the local scale. Species population synchrony within sites increased with trophic level, whereas synchrony among communities decreased. At the local scale, temporal variability in precipitation and species diversity were associated with population variability (linear partial coefficient, β = 0.23) and population synchrony (β = −0.39) similarly across trophic levels, respectively. At the regional scale, community synchrony was not related to climatic or spatial predictors, but the strength of relationships between metacommunity variability and community synchrony decreased systematically from top predators (β = 0.73) to secondary consumers (β = 0.54), to primary consumers (β = 0.30) to producers (β = 0). Our results suggest that mobile predators may often stabilize metacommunities by buffering variability that originates at the base of food webs. This finding illustrates that the trophic structure of metacommunities, which integrates variation in organismal body size and its correlates, should be considered when investigating ecological stability in natural systems. More broadly, our work advances the notion that temporal stability is an emergent property of ecosystems that may be threatened in complex ways by biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation. 

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2. Consumers stabilize grassland ecosystem functions by destabilizing belowground communities under abiotic stress

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70254  

   Lucas, Jane M; Budny, Michelle L; Lemoine, Nathan P (November 2025, Ecology)

   Abstract Consumers play a critical role in mediating plant and ecosystem responses to abiotic stress, yet their influence on belowground processes under changing environmental conditions remains underexplored. Insect consumers are vital components of grassland ecosystems that can shape ecosystem function and stability by mitigating how plant and microbial communities respond to abiotic stress, like drought. This study investigates how small‐bodied consumers influence the magnitude and stability of grassland belowground functions across gradients of abiotic stress. We conducted a fully factorial field experiment manipulating consumer presence and induced drought over a growing season. Our results reveal that the presence of consumers stabilizes bacterial biomass and microbial activity across variable soil moisture conditions. Interestingly, this consumer‐induced increase in ecosystem stability was driven by a destabilization of microbial communities, as indicated by increased variability in bacterial community composition and abundance. Consumer presence also shifted soil bacterial community composition and richness, while fungal communities were less affected. Combined, our results highlight another important dimension of ecosystem stability: community responsiveness and rapid adaptability. Additionally, our findings underscore the critical role of consumers in maintaining belowground ecosystem stability and highlight the need to consider trophic interactions when predicting the impacts of global change on grassland ecosystems. 

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3. Intraspecific diversity at two trophic levels influences plant–herbivore interactions

   Noto, Akana E; Hughes, A. Randall (May 2020, Ecosphere)

   Diversity within species can have community‐level effects similar in magnitude to those of species diversity. Intraspecific diversity in producers and consumers has separately been shown to affect trophic interactions, yet we have little understanding of how variation at these two levels could simultaneously affect trophic interactions. Salt marshes dominated by Spartina alterniflora are an ideal system in which to ask this question as this plant exhibits substantial genetically based trait variation. Further, herbivores can have sizable impacts on Spartina, but the impact of herbivore trait variation is not well understood. We conducted an experiment in a Massachusetts salt marsh to determine how herbivorous crab (Sesarma reticulatum) size diversity and Spartina genotypic diversity affect the plant community. Herbivore effects on plant traits varied by herbivore size, with large crabs generally having stronger impacts on plants. At times, the effect of small crabs on plant traits depended on plant genotypic diversity. The effects of crab size diversity (i.e., small and large crabs combined) were most often predicted by the independent effects of each size class, though there were synergistic effects on stem density, flowering stems, and mean stem height. Finally, we tested whether herbivore size or size diversity could have reciprocal effects on plant genotypic diversity. Small‐ and mixed‐crab treatments promoted plant genotypic richness, whereas large crabs did not. Our results demonstrate that intraspecific diversity at multiple trophic levels can have simultaneous and sometimes interactive effects on species interactions, highlighting the importance of variation within species for understanding species interactions and community processes. 

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4. Microbiomes Reduce Their Host’s Sensitivity to Interspecific Interactions

   https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02657-19  

   Jackrel, Sara L.; Schmidt, Kathryn C.; Cardinale, Bradley J.; Denef, Vincent J.; Cooper, Vaughn S. (February 2020, mBio)

   ABSTRACT Bacteria associated with eukaryotic hosts can affect host fitness and trophic interactions between eukaryotes, but the extent to which bacteria influence the eukaryotic species interactions within trophic levels that modulate biodiversity and species coexistence is mostly unknown. Here, we used phytoplankton, which are a classic model for evaluating interactions between species, grown with and without associated bacteria to test whether the bacteria alter the strength and type of species interactions within a trophic level. We demonstrate that host-associated bacteria alter host growth rates and carrying capacity. This did not change the type but frequently changed the strength of host interspecific interactions by facilitating host growth in the presence of an established species. These findings indicate that microbiomes can regulate their host species’ interspecific interactions. As between-species interaction strength impacts their ability to coexist, our findings show that microbiomes have the potential to modulate eukaryotic species diversity and community composition. IMPORTANCE Description of the Earth’s microbiota has recently undergone a phenomenal expansion that has challenged basic assumptions in many areas of biology, including hominid evolution, human gastrointestinal and neurodevelopmental disorders, and plant adaptation to climate change. By using the classic model system of freshwater phytoplankton that has been drawn upon for numerous foundational theories in ecology, we show that microbiomes, by facilitating their host population, can also influence between-species interactions among their eukaryotic hosts. Between-species interactions, including competition for resources, has been a central tenet in the field of ecology because of its implications for the diversity and composition of communities and how this in turn shapes ecosystem functioning. 

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5. Community context mediates effects of pollinator loss on seed production

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4569  

   Arrowsmith, K. C.; Reynolds, Victoria A.; Briggs, Heather M.; Brosi, Berry J. (June 2023, Ecosphere)

   Abstract A critical goal for ecologists is understanding how ongoing local and global species losses will affect ecosystem functions and services. Diversity–functioning relationships, which are well‐characterized in primary producer communities, are much less consistently predictable for ecosystem functions involving two or more trophic levels, particularly in situations where multiple species in one trophic level impact functional outcomes at another trophic level. This is particularly relevant to pollination functioning, given ongoing pollinator declines and the value of understanding pollination functioning for single plant species like crops or threatened plants. We used spatially replicated, controlled single‐pollinator‐species removal experiments to assess how changes in bumble bee species richness impacted the production of fertilized seeds in a perennial herb—Delphinium barbeyi—in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA. To improve predictability, we also assessed how traits and abundances in the plant and bumble bee communities were related toD. barbeyireproductive success. We hypothesized that trait‐matching between pollinator proboscis length andD. barbeyi's nectar spurs would produce a greater number of fertilized seeds, while morphological similarity within the floral community would dilute pollination services. We found that the effects of pollinator removal differed depending on the behavioral patterns of pollinators and compositional features of the plant and pollinator communities. While pollinator floral fidelity generally increasedD. barbeyiseed production, that positive effect was primarily evident when more than half of theBombuscommunity was experimentally removed. Similarly, communities comprising primarily long‐tongued bees were most beneficial toD. barbeyiseed production in tandem with a strong removal. Finally, we observed contrasting effects of morphological similarity in the plant community, with evidence of both competition and facilitation among plants. These results offer an example of the complex dynamics underlying ecosystem function in multitrophic systems and demonstrate that community context can impact diversity–functioning relationships between trophic levels. 

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