Abstract
Ecosystems are exposed to multiple stressors which can compromise functioning and service delivery. These stressors often co-occur and interact in different ways which are not yet fully understood. Here, we applied a population model representing a freshwater amphipod feeding on leaf litter in forested streams. We simulated impacts of hypothetical stressors, individually and in pairwise combinations that target the individuals' feeding, maintenance, growth and reproduction. Impacts were quantified by examining responses at three levels of biological organisation: individual-level body sizes and cumulative reproduction, population-level abundance and biomass and ecosystem-level leaf litter decomposition. Interactive effects of multiple stressors at the individual level were mostly antagonistic, that is, less negative than expected. Most population- and ecosystem-level responses to multiple stressors were stronger than expected from an additive model, that is, synergistic. Our results suggest that across levels of biological organisation responses to multiple stressors are rarely only additive. We suggest methods for efficiently quantifying impacts of multiple stressors at different levels of biological organisation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 568-577 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Ecology letters |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS
Keywords
- Antagonism
- detritivores
- ecosystem services
- energy budgets
- individual-based model
- population dynamics
- stressor interactions
- synergism