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An ecological network approach to predict ecosystem service vulnerability to species losses.

ABSTRACT: Human-driven threats are changing biodiversity, impacting ecosystem services. The loss of one species can trigger secondary extinctions of additional species, because species interact-yet the consequences of these secondary extinctions for services remain underexplored. Herein, we compare robustness of food webs and the ecosystem services (hereafter 'services') they provide; and investigate factors determining service responses to secondary extinctions. Simulating twelve extinction scenarios for estuarine food webs with seven services, we find that food web and service robustness are highly correlated, but that robustness varies across services depending on their trophic level and redundancy. Further, we find that species providing services do not play a critical role in stabilizing food webs - whereas species playing supporting roles in services through interactions are critical to the robustness of both food webs and services. Together, our results reveal indirect risks to services through secondary species losses and predictable differences in vulnerability across services.

SUBMITTER: Keyes AA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7952599 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An ecological network approach to predict ecosystem service vulnerability to species losses.

Keyes Aislyn A AA McLaughlin John P JP Barner Allison K AK Dee Laura E LE

Nature communications 20210311 1

Human-driven threats are changing biodiversity, impacting ecosystem services. The loss of one species can trigger secondary extinctions of additional species, because species interact-yet the consequences of these secondary extinctions for services remain underexplored. Herein, we compare robustness of food webs and the ecosystem services (hereafter 'services') they provide; and investigate factors determining service responses to secondary extinctions. Simulating twelve extinction scenarios for ...[more]

PMID: 33707438

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Project description:Being subject to climate change and human intervention, the land-use pattern in the agro-pastoral ecotone of Northern China has undergone complex changes over the past few decades, which may jeopardize the provision of ecosystem services. Thus, for sustainable land management, ecosystem services should be evaluated and monitored. In this study, based on Landsat TM/ETM data, we quantitatively evaluated the losses of ecosystem service values (ESV) in three sections of the agro-pastoral ecotone from 1980-2015. The results were as follows: (1) the main characteristic of the land conversions was that a large area of grassland was converted into cultivated land in the agro-pastoral ecotone; (2) on the spatial scale, the ESV losses of the agro-pastoral ecotone can be called an "inclined surface" in the direction of the northeast to southwest, and the northeastern section of the agro-pastoral ecotone lost more ESV than the middle and northwest sections (p < 0.05), on the temporal scale, the order of losses was 1990-2000 > 1980-1990 > 2000-2015; (3) the agro-pastoral ecotone lost more ESV, which was mainly due to four kinds of land conversion, which were grassland that was transformed into cultivated land, grassland transformed into unused land, grassland transformed into built-up areas, and cultivated land transformed into built-up areas; (4) although these land conversions were curbed after the implementation of protection policies at the end of the 1990s, due to reduced precipitation and increasing temperatures, the agro-pastoral ecotone will face a more severe situation in the future; and, (5) during the period of 1990-2015, the overall dynamic processes of increasing population gradually expanded to the sparsely populated pastoral area. Therefore, we believe that human interventions are the main cause of ecological deterioration in the agro-pastoral ecotone. This study provides references for fully understanding the regional differences in the ecological and environmental effects of land use change and it helps to objectively evaluate ecological civilization construction in the agro-pastoral ecotone of Northern China.

Dataset Information

An ecological network approach to predict ecosystem service vulnerability to species losses.

Publications

An ecological network approach to predict ecosystem service vulnerability to species losses.

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