Metabolic traits predict the effects of warming on phytoplankton competition
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Bestion, Elvire
Garcia-Carreras, Bernardo
Schaum, Charlotte-Elisa
Pawar, Samraat
Yvon-Durocher, Gabriel
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Understanding how changes in temperature affect interspecific competition is critical for predicting changes in ecological communities with global warming. Here, we develop a theoretical model that links interspecific differences in the temperature dependence of resource acquisition and growth to the outcome of pairwise competition in phytoplankton. We parameterised our model with these metabolic traits derived from six species of freshwater phytoplankton and tested its ability to predict the outcome of competition in all pairwise combinations of the species in a factorial experiment, manipulating temperature and nutrient availability. The model correctly predicted the outcome of competition in 72% of the pairwise experiments, with competitive advantage determined by difference in thermal sensitivity of growth rates of the two species. These results demonstrate that metabolic traits play a key role in determining how changes in temperature influence interspecific competition and lay the foundation for mechanistically predicting the effects of warming in complex, multi‐species communities.
Date Issued
2018-05-01
Date Acceptance
2018-01-27
Citation
Ecology Letters, 2018, 21 (5), pp.655-664
ISSN
1461-023X
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
655
End Page
664
Journal / Book Title
Ecology Letters
Volume
21
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000430120400006&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
NE/M004740/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Ecology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Climate change
freshwater phytoplankton
global change
interspecific competition
metabolic theory of ecology
nutrients
phosphate
physiological mismatches
temperature
trait-based ecology
TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE
CLIMATE-CHANGE
ALGAL GROWTH
SPECIES VULNERABILITY
EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
TROPHIC INTERACTIONS
SEASONAL DYNAMICS
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
BODY-SIZE
MODEL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-03-25