Ecological response to altered rainfall differs across the Neotropics

Author(s):Show less -

Srivastava, Diane S. ^{[1, 2]} ; Cereghino, Regis ^[3] ; Trzcinski, M. Kurtis ^[3] ; MacDonald, A. Andrew M. ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]} ; Marino, Nicholas A. C. ^{[5, 6]} ; Mercado, Dimaris Acosta ^[7] ; Leroy, Celine ^{[8, 9]} ; Corbara, Bruno ^[10] ; Romero, Gustavo Q. ^[11] ; Farjalla, Vinicius F. ^[6] ; Barberis, Ignacio M. ^[12] ; Dezerald, Olivier ^{[13, 9, 14]} ; Hammill, Edd ^{[1, 2, 15, 16, 4]} ; Atwood, Trisha B. ^{[15, 16, 17]} ; Piccoli, Gustavo C. O. ^[18] ; Ospina-Bautista, Fabiola ^{[19, 20]} ; Carrias, Jean-Francois ^[10] ; Leal, Juliana S. ^[6] ; Montero, Guillermo ^[12] ; Antiqueira, Pablo A. P. ^[11] ; Freire, Rodrigo ^[12] ; Realpe, Emilio ^[19] ; Amundrud, Sarah L. ^{[1, 2, 4]} ; deOmena, Paula M. ^[11] ; Campos, Alice B. A. ^[6]

Affiliation:Show less -

^[1] Univ British Columbia, Dept Zool, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 - Canada

^[2] Univ British Columbia, Biodivers Res Ctr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 - Canada

^[3] Univ Toulouse, Ecolab, Lab Ecol Fonct & Environm, INPT, CNRS, UPS, F-21941901 Toulouse - France

^[4] Ospina-Bautista, Fabiola, Univ Caldas, Dept Ciencias Biol, Caldas 170001, Colombia.Srivastava, Diane S., Univ British Columbia, Dept Zool, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 - Canada

^[5] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Programa Posgrad Ecol, BR-68020 Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brazil

^[6] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Ctr Ciencias Saude, Inst Biol, Dept Ecol, BR-68020 Rio De Janeiro, RJ - Brazil

^[7] Univ Puerto Rico, Dept Biol, Mayaguez Campus, Mayaguez, PR 00681 - USA

^[8] Univ Montpellier, INRA, CNRS, CIRAD, AMAP, IRD, Montpellier 5 - France

^[9] Univ Guyane, Univ Antilles, INRA, CNRS, CIRAD, AgroParisTech, ECOFOG, F-97379 Kourou - France

^[10] Univ Clermont Auvergne, LMGE Lab Microorganismes Genome & Environm, CNRS, F-63000 Clermont Ferrand - France

^[11] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Anim Biol, Lab Multitroph Interact & Biodivers, UNICAMP, BR-13083862 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[12] Univ Nacl Rosario, Fac Ciencias Agr, IICAR, CONICET, S2125ZAA, Zavalla - Argentina

^[13] Agrocampus Ouest, Ecol & Ecosyst Hlth, INRA, 65 Rue St Brieuc, F-35042 Rennes - France

^[14] Univ Lorraine, Lab Interdisciplinaire Environm Continentaux LIEC, CNRS, UMR 7360, Campus Bridoux, F-57070 Metz - France

^[15] Utah State Univ, Ecol Ctr, Logan, UT 84322 - USA

^[16] Utah State Univ, Dept Watershed Sci, Logan, UT 84322 - USA

^[17] Univ British Columbia, Dept Forest & Conservat Sci, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 - Canada

^[18] Univ Sao Paulo State UNESP, Dept Zool & Bot, IBILCE, BR-15054000 Sao Jose Do Rio Preto, SP - Brazil

^[19] Andes Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Bogota 111711 - Colombia

^[20] Univ Caldas, Dept Ciencias Biol, Caldas 170001 - Colombia

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ECOLOGY; v. 101, n. 4 APR 2020.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

There is growing recognition that ecosystems may be more impacted by infrequent extreme climatic events than by changes in mean climatic conditions. This has led to calls for experiments that explore the sensitivity of ecosystems over broad ranges of climatic parameter space. However, because such response surface experiments have so far been limited in geographic and biological scope, it is not clear if differences between studies reflect geographic location or the ecosystem component considered. In this study, we manipulated rainfall entering tank bromeliads in seven sites across the Neotropics, and characterized the response of the aquatic ecosystem in terms of invertebrate functional composition, biological stocks (total invertebrate biomass, bacterial density) and ecosystem fluxes (decomposition, carbon, nitrogen). Of these response types, invertebrate functional composition was the most sensitive, even though, in some sites, the species pool had a high proportion of drought-tolerant families. Total invertebrate biomass was universally insensitive to rainfall change because of statistical averaging of divergent responses between functional groups. The response of invertebrate functional composition to rain differed between geographical locations because (1) the effect of rainfall on bromeliad hydrology differed between sites, and invertebrates directly experience hydrology not rainfall and (2) the taxonomic composition of some functional groups differed between sites, and families differed in their response to bromeliad hydrology. These findings suggest that it will be difficult to establish thresholds of ``safe ecosystem functioning{''} when ecosystem components differ in their sensitivity to climatic variables, and such thresholds may not be broadly applicable over geographic space. In particular, ecological forecast horizons for climate change may be spatially restricted in systems where habitat properties mediate climatic impacts, and those, like the tropics, with high spatial turnover in species composition. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/01209-9 - Effects of climate change on the structure of food webs in latitudinal gradients
• Grantee: Gustavo Quevedo Romero
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• FAPESP's process: 14/04603-4 - Global warming effects on the trophic structure and ecosystem functioning in tank-bromeliads
• Grantee: Pablo Augusto Poleto Antiqueira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 12/51143-3 - Global changes and the functioning of ecosystems in phytotelmata
• Grantee: Gustavo Quevedo Romero
• Support Opportunities: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Regular Grants