Divergent composition but similar function of soil food webs of individual plants: plant species and community effects

Soils are extremely rich in biodiversity, and soil organisms play pivotal roles in supporting terrestrial life, but the role that individual plants and plant communities play in influencing the diversity and functioning of soil food webs remains highly debated. Plants, as primary producers and providers of resources to the soil food web, are of vital importance for the composition, structure, and functioning of soil communities. However, whether natural soil food webs that are completely open to immigration and emigration differ underneath individual plants remains unknown. In a biodiversity restoration experiment we first compared the soil nematode communities of 228 individual plants belonging to eight herbaceous species. We included grass, leguminous, and non-leguminous species. Each individual plant grew intermingled with other species, but all plant species had a different nematode community. Moreover, nematode communities were more similar when plant individuals were growing in the same as compared to different plant communities, and these effects were most apparent for the groups of bacterivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous nematodes. Subsequently, we analyzed the composition, structure, and functioning of the complete soil food webs of 58 individual plants, belonging to two of the plant species, Lotus corniculatus (Fabaceae) and Plantago lanceolata (Plantaginaceae). We isolated and identified more than 150 taxa/groups of soil organisms. The soil community composition and structure of the entire food webs were influenced both by the species identity of the plant individual and the surrounding plant community. Unexpectedly, plant identity had the strongest effects on decomposing soil organisms, widely believed to be generalist feeders. In contrast, quantitative food web modeling showed that the composition of the plant community influenced nitrogen mineralization under individual plants, but that plant species identity did not affect nitrogen or carbon mineralization or food web stability. Hence, the composition and structure of entire soil food webs vary at the scale of individual plants and are strongly influenced by the species identity of the plant. However, the ecosystem functions these food webs provide are determined by the identity of the entire plant community.     

三江源区不同建植年代人工草地群落演替与土壤养分变化

研究了了三源区不同建植期人工修复草地在不同演替阶段毒杂草[主要是甘肃马先蒿(Pedicularis kansuensis)]的入侵规律、数量特征,植物群落物种组成、生物苗和草地质最以及土壤养分、微生物活性的变化规律.结果表明,不同建植期人工修复草地植物群落的种类组成、植物功能群组成和群落数量特征存在显著差异.随着演替时间的推移,人工草地群落盖度、高度、物种数、生物最和多样性指数均表现出"V"字型变化规律,杂类草--甘肃马先蒿的数量特征变化尤为明显,在4 a的人工草地群落中开始局部入侵,在5～6 a的人工草地群落中大面积入侵,其入侵速度、入侵面积达到高峰期.土壤的含水量、容重、土壤中有机质、氮素和磷素在演替过程(7 a、9 a草地)中逐渐降低,到一定时期又逐步增加;随着演替的进行,不同建植期人工草地的土壤微牛物生物量碳和酶活性均呈"V"字型,变化.对于退化生态系统的恢复首先是植被恢复,其次是土壤肥力的恢复.土壤有机质等养分的积累、微生物活性的改善不仅能使土壤-植物复合系统的功能得以恢复,同时也能促进物种多样性的形成,有利于人工草地群落稳定性的提高.在试验区尽管植被恢复演替进行得比较缓慢,但从土壤发展的角度看,仍属进展演替.所以,在退化高寒草甸的恢复过程中,若降低和有效控制外界的干扰(如围栏封育),可为退化草地恢复提供繁殖体与土壤环境,实现人工草地逐步向恢复(正向)演替进行.图3表6参34     

Amazonian deforestation and soil biodiversity

Clearance and perturbation of Amazonian forests are one of the greatest threats to tropical biodiversity conservation of our times. A better understanding of how soil communities respond to Amazonian deforestation is crucially needed to inform policy interventions that effectively protect biodiversity and the essential ecosystem services it provides. We assessed the impact of deforestation and ecosystem conversion to arable land on Amazonian soil biodiversity through a meta-analysis. We analyzed 274 pairwise comparisons of soil biodiversity in Amazonian primary forests and sites under different stages of deforestation and land-use conversion: disturbed (wildfire and selective logging) and slash-and-burnt forests, pastures, and cropping systems. Overall, 60% and 51% of responses of soil macrofauna and microbial community attributes (i.e., abundance, biomass, richness, and diversity indexes) to deforestation were negative, respectively. We found few studies on mesofauna (e.g., microarthropods) and microfauna (e.g., protozoa and nematodes), so those groups could not be analyzed. Macrofauna abundance and biomass were more vulnerable to the displacement of forests by pastures than by agricultural fields, whereas microbes showed the opposite pattern. Effects of Amazonian deforestation on macrofauna were more detrimental at sites with mean annual precipitation >1900 mm, and higher losses of microbes occurred in highly acidic soils (pH < 4.5). Limited geographic coverage, omission of meso- and microfauna, and low taxonomic resolution were main factors impairing generalizations from the data set. Few studies assessed the impacts of within-forest disturbance (wildfires and selective logging) on soil species in Amazonia, where logging operations rapidly expand across public lands and more frequent severe dry seasons are increasing the prevalence of wildfires.     

生物多样性的海拔分布格局研究及进展

生物多样性的海拔分布格局受制于气候、空间、环境等多种因子的影响,综合大量研究发现,无论是动植物还是微生物,环境因子对其影响与驱动的作用最明显。海拔梯度是决定分布格局的重要因素之一,因此探讨生物多样性在环境因子驱动下的海拔分布格局具有重要意义。文章分别探讨了植物、土壤动物和土壤微生物多样性沿海拔梯度的变化规律,揭示了温度、湿度及人为干扰等因素下植物多样性沿海拔梯度的5种分布格局及可能机制,土壤动物多样性沿海拔梯度的3种分布格局及可能机制,同时揭示土壤微生物在海拔分布格局虽然有物种模式,但是机制不是很明确;最后对植物、土壤动物、土壤微生物生物多样性耦合关系的认识作了阐述。并在此基础上,认为生物多样性的分布格局与尺度密切相关,因此开展不同尺度的生物多样性的研究以及它们对全球气候变化的响应是未来研究的重要方向;土壤动物群落的多样性的变化规律研究,应致力于其生理型、营养型、生态型的多样性的研究;在不同的研究尺度上,驱动微生物群落构建机制的差异导致了群落演变规律的变化,仍需要以地理学和生物学等相关学科理论为支撑,并与微生物群落构建理论相结合,对海拔分布格局下生物多样性的保护和生态系统稳定性研究提供科学依据。     

Interactions among bacterial-feeding nematode species at different levels of food availability

Accurate prediction of the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship requires adequate understanding of the interactions among species in a community. Effects of species diversity on ecosystem functioning are usually considered more pronounced with increasing functional dissimilarity, although species within functional groups may also perform non-identical functions and interact with each other. Here we present results of a laboratory experimental study aimed at elucidating whether interspecific interactions among species within a single nematode trophic group, bacterivores, (1) affect population development and community structure, and (2) depend on food availability. We studied the population growth of Rhabditis (Pellioditis) marina, a rhabditid nematode known to favour very high food densities when in monoculture, and of Diplolaimelloides meyli and D. oschei, congeneric Monhysteridae known to perform better in monocultures at intermediate food availability. Both Diplolaimelloides species showed significantly different patterns of food-density dependence in combination culture compared to monoculture. At very high food availability, the rhabditid nematode facilitated growth of both monhysterid species, probably as a result of down-regulation of bacterial density. At the lowest food availabilities, the presence of even low numbers of monhysterid nematodes lead to exclusion of the rhabditid, which at such low food availability has a very inefficient food uptake. At intermediate food availabilities, abundances of both Diplolaimelloides species were strongly depressed in the combination culture, as a result of food depletion by the rhabditid, indirect inhibitory interactions between the two congeneric species, or both. The complexity of the species interactions render predictions on the outcome and functional consequences of changes in within-trophic-group diversity highly problematic.     

有机农业与常规农业对农田生物多样性影响的比较研究进展

一些研究者认为,有机农业不仅在理念上而且在实践上,都有助于促进农田生物多样性的维持和保护.为了促进我国科学界对有机农业与农田生物多样性关联性研究的关注,综述了有机农业对农田生态系统内杂草、地表节肢动物、土壤生物以及鸟类等不同生物类群种类、数量及其多样性的影响.     

The impact of seabed disturbance on nematode communities: linking field and laboratory observations

Physical disturbance is a key factor in controlling the spatial and temporal composition of shallow-water benthic communities. Like shallow waters, deeper waters are increasingly subject to a range of anthropogenic disturbances, which can lead to significant alterations in sedimentation patterns. These alterations often exceed naturally occurring changes. We used a combined analysis of six independent data sets arising from large-scale field surveys and small-scale laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of seabed disturbance on nematode communities. Disturbance response was documented as a function of disturbance type (coastal development, dredged material disposal, bottom trawling, glacial fjord) and intensity (low, medium, high). Natural and man-induced seabed disturbance exerted differential effects on exposed populations, generating changes in the taxonomic (genus) and functional (feeding type) attributes of their assemblages. The genus composition of nematode assemblages from geographically separate seas converged with increased level of various types of man-made disturbance. Assemblages present along a gradient of natural disturbance in a glacial fjord followed an opposite response vector, suggesting that community changes induced by anthropogenic activities, or experimental treatments simulating the principal impacts of these, inherently differ from disturbance of natural origin. Changes in trophic diversity and structure were primarily driven by factors confounded with physical disturbance, such as metal contamination. Coupling the results of analyses at multiple scales proved a useful means of providing deeper insights into the general response of ecological communities to environmental change.     

Niche complementarity for nitrogen: an explanation for the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relationship?

The relationship between plant diversity and productivity has largely been attributed to niche complementarity, assuming that plant species are complementary in their resource use. In this context, we conducted an 15N field study in three different grasslands, testing complementarity nitrogen (N) uptake patterns in terms of space, time, and chemical form as well as N strategies such as soil N use, symbiotic N fixation, or internal N recycling for different plant species. The relative contribution of different spatial, temporal, and chemical soil N pools to total soil N uptake of plants varied significantly among the investigated plant species, within and across functional groups. This suggests that plants occupy distinct niches with respect to their relative N uptake. However, when the absolute N uptake from the different soil N pools was analyzed, no spatial, temporal, or chemical variability was detected, but plants, and in particular functional groups, differed significantly with respect to their total soil N uptake irrespective of treatment. Consequently, our data suggest that absolute N exploitation on the ecosystem level is determined by species or functional group identity and thus by community composition rather than by complementary biodiversity effects. Across functional groups, total N uptake from the soil was negatively correlated with leaf N concentrations, suggesting that these functional groups follow different N use strategies to meet their N demands. While our findings give no evidence for a biodiversity effect on the quantitative exploitation of different soil N pools, there is evidence for different and complementary N strategies and thus a potentially beneficial effect of functional group diversity on ecosystem functioning.     

Effects of Changes in Biodiversity on Ecosystem Function in Tropical Forests

Changing land use in the tropics has resulted in vast areas of damaged and degraded lands where biodiversity has been reduced. The majority of research on biodiversity has been focused on population and community dynamics and has rarely considered the ecosystem processes that are intimately related. We present a framework for examining the effects of changes in biodiversity on ecosystem function in natural, managed, and damaged tropical forests. Using a whole-ecosystem approach, the framework identifies key nutrient and energy cycling processes and critical junctures or pathways, termed interfaces, where resources are concentrated and transferred between the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. Processes occurring at these interfaces, and the organisms or attributes participating in these processes, exert a strong influence on ecosystem structure. We use examples from Puerto Rico, Southern China, Dominica, and Nicaragua to illustrate how the functional diversity framework can be applied to critically examine the effects of changes in biodiversity on ecosystem function, and the relative success or failure of rehabilitation strategies. The few available data suggest that functional diversity, and not just species richness, is important in maintaining the integrity of nutrient and energy fluxes. High species richness, however, may increase ecosystem resiliency following disturbance by increasing the number of alternative pathways for the flow of resources. We suggest ways in which the framework of functional diversity can be used to design research to examine the effects of changes in biodiversity on ecosystem processes and in the design and evaluation of ecosystem management and land rehabilitation projects in the tropics.     

Effects of biological disturbance by<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Monoporeia affinis</Emphasis> (Amphipoda) on small-scale migration of marine nematodes in low-energy soft sediments

Free-living marine, benthic nematodes quickly colonise sediments where physical forces are strong enough to suspend them into the water column. In the absence of such forces colonisation is much slower and is more likely to be affected by biological factors. The aim of the study was to investigate if nematodes disperse more readily in the presence of biological disturbance where physical disturbance is rare or non-existent. Amphipods are able to greatly rework sediments, and thereby induce disturbance to the infauna. A laboratory experiment with the amphipod Monoporeia affinis and nematodes from a low-energy, 30-m-deep location was conducted in mesocosms where the nematodes were given the choice to colonise azoic sediment at three amphipod densities, zero, low and high. Each area of azoic sediment in the mesocosms was divided into three equilateral sections from the nematode source, i.e. 10, 23 and 36 cm. At termination, after 7 weeks, there were no significant differences in nematode abundance and assemblage structure between treatments despite considerable biological disturbance created by the amphipods. The number of nematodes was 16%, 15% and 11% of the total numbers in the source at the three sections 10, 23 and 36 cm, respectively. There were distinct differences in the nematode community composition between distances, with the small surface-dwelling taxon Leptolaimus spp. being a rapid and the numerically dominant coloniser of the azoic sediments. Migration of nematodes over short distances is likely to be slow in the absence of strong physical forces. To our knowledge, this is the first paper ever that investigates the influence of macrofauna on nematode short-range migration.Communicated by L. Hagerman, Helsingør     

厚荚相思和尾叶桉人工林土壤线虫群落研究

相思树和桉树等树种因其生长迅速、耐性好以及适合制作纸浆等特点,近年来在华南地区大面积种植,带来了巨大的经济利益,但是相思树和桉树如何影响林下土壤生物多样性和土壤肥力还不清楚,科学评价其林下土壤健康水平十分必要。土壤线虫的种类和数量十分丰富,在土壤食物网各营养级中占据重要位置,对土壤环境变化反应敏感,作为土壤健康的指示生物被广泛应用。本文以幼龄厚荚相思 Acacia crassicapa和尾叶桉 Eucalyptus urophylla人工林为研究对象,于干季和湿季分别对2个林分根区和非根区土壤线虫进行研究,探讨土壤线虫这种指示生物的数量、各营养类群比例和多样性的变化规律,以及它们和环境因子的关系。主要结果表明：（1）厚荚相思土壤线虫总数为每公斤干土6741条,显著高于尾叶桉线虫总数的28.3%。厚荚相思人工林土壤食细菌线虫的百分比相比尾叶桉人工林高6.3%,且差异显著。（2）土壤线虫的群落组成变化具有明显的季节波动,湿季土壤食细菌线虫比例上升,而植物寄生线虫的比例下降,多样性指数由干季的0.87减小到0.75,统计差异均达到了显著水平。（3）根区比非根区显著提高了线虫数量的89.1%,这是由根区积累更多的有机碳和总氮引起的。总之,厚荚相思人工林为土壤自由生活线虫提供了优良环境,且在幼龄期没有表现出土壤酸化,生态效应优于尾叶桉人工林,在华南地区人工林营林过程中可适当增加厚荚相思林分面积。     

Response of complex food webs to realistic extinction sequences

Although an ecosystem's response to biodiversity loss depends on the order in which species are lost, the extinction sequences generally used to explore such responses in food webs have been ecologically unrealistic. We investigate how several extinction orders affect the minimum number of secondary extinctions expected within pelagic food webs from 34 temperate freshwater lakes. An ecologically plausible extinction order is derived from the geographically nested pattern of species composition among the lakes and is corroborated by species' pH tolerances. Simulations suggest that lake communities are remarkably robust to this realistic extinction order and highly sensitive to the reverse sequence of species loss. This sensitivity is not well explained by the known sensitivity of networks to the loss of highly connected species but appears to be better explained by our observation that trophic specialists preferentially consume widely distributed species at low risk of extinction. Our results highlight an important aspect of community organization that may help to maintain biodiversity amidst changing environments.     

Native fish diversity alters the effects of an invasive species on food webs

Aquatic communities have been altered by invasive species, with impacts on native biodiversity and ecosystem function. At the same time, native biodiversity may mitigate the effects of an invader. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a ubiquitous, invasive fish species that strongly influences community and ecosystem processes. We used common carp to test whether the potential effects of an invasive species are altered across a range of species diversity in native communities. In mesocosms, treatments of zero, one, three, and six native fish species were used to represent the nested subset patterns observed in fish communities of lakes in Illinois, USA. The effect of the invader was tested across fish richness treatments by adding common carp to the native community and substituting native biomass with common carp. Native species and intraspecific effects reduced invader growth. The invader reduced native fish growth; however, the negative effect was minimized with increasing native richness. The zooplankton grazer community was modified by a top-down effect from the invader that increased the amount of phytoplankton. Neither the invader nor richness treatments influenced total phosphorus or community metabolism. Overall, the invader reduced resources for native species; and the effect scaled with how the invader was incorporated into the community. Higher native diversity mitigated the impact of the invader, confirming the need to consider biodiversity when predicting the impacts of invasive species.     

Prioritizing Conservation Effort through the Use of Biological Soil Crusts as Ecosystem Function Indicators in an Arid Region

Abstract: Conservation prioritization usually focuses on conservation of rare species or biodiversity, rather than ecological processes. This is partially due to a lack of informative indicators of ecosystem function. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) trap and retain soil and water resources in arid ecosystems and function as major carbon and nitrogen fixers; thus, they may be informative indicators of ecosystem function. We created spatial models of multiple indicators of the diversity and function of BSCs (species richness, evenness, functional diversity, functional redundancy, number of rare species, number of habitat specialists, nitrogen and carbon fixation indices, soil stabilization, and surface roughening) for the 800,000‐ha Grand Staircase‐Escalante National Monument (Utah, U.S.A.). We then combined the indicators into a single BSC function map and a single BSC biodiversity map (2 alternative types of conservation value) with an unweighted averaging procedure and a weighted procedure derived from validations performance. We also modeled potential degradation with data from a rangeland assessment survey. To determine which areas on the landscape were the highest conservation priorities, we overlaid the function‐ and diversity‐based conservation‐value layers on the potential degradation layer. Different methods for ascribing conservation‐value and conservation‐priority layers all yielded strikingly similar results (r= 0.89–0.99), which suggests that in this case biodiversity and function can be conserved simultaneously. We believe BSCs can be used as indicators of ecosystem function in concert with other indicators (such as plant‐community properties) and that such information can be used to prioritize conservation effort in drylands.     

Impacts of chronic trawling disturbance on meiofaunal communities

Bottom trawling causes chronic and widespread disturbance to the seabed in shelf seas. Meiofauna may be impacted directly or indirectly by this disturbance, since the passage of trawls causes immediate mortality or displacement, changes sediment structure and geochemistry and affects the abundance of predators or competitors. Since meiofauna make a significantly greater contribution to benthic production than the larger macrofauna, there are compelling reasons to assess their response to chronic trawling disturbance. In this study, we determined the effects of trawling disturbance, season, sediment type and depth on the structure and diversity of nematode communities. Our analyses were based on comparisons between nematode communities in three beam-trawl fishing areas in the central North Sea. These areas were trawled with mean frequencies of I (low disturbance), 4 (medium) and 6 (high) times year⁻¹ respectively. Our analyses showed that trawling had a significant impact on the composition of nematode assemblages. In two sampling seasons, the number of species, diversity and species richness of the community were significantly lower in the area subject to high levels of trawling disturbance than in the areas subject to low or medium levels of disturbance. However, levels of disturbance at the ‘low’ and ‘medium’ sites may have been insufficient to cause marked longterm changes in community structure. Many of the observed changes were consistent with responses to other forms of physical disturbance. The extent to which the observed changes in community structure reflect changes in the production of the nematode community remains unknown, although overall abundance was not significantly affected by trawling disturbance. Published online. 9 August 2002     

Relative and interactive effects of plant and grazer richness in a benthic marine community

The interactive effects of changing biodiversity of consumers and their prey are poorly understood but are likely to be important under realistic scenarios of biodiversity loss and gain. We performed two factorial manipulations of macroalgal group (greens, reds, and browns) and herbivore species (amphipods, sea urchin, and fish) composition and richness in outdoor mesocosms simulating a subtidal, hard-substratum estuarine community in North Carolina, U.S.A. In the experiment where grazer richness treatments were substitutive, there were no significant effects of algal or herbivore richness on final algal biomass. However, in the experiment in which grazer treatments were additive (i.e., species-specific densities were held constant across richness treatments), we found strong independent and interactive effects of algal and herbivore richness. Herbivore polycultures reduced algal biomass to a greater degree than the sum of the three herbivore monocultures, indicating that the measured grazer richness effects were not due solely to increased herbivore density in the polycultures. Taking grazer density into account also revealed that increasing algal richness dampened grazer richness effects. Additionally, the effect of algal richness on algal biomass accumulation was far stronger when herbivores were absent, suggesting that grazers can utilize the increased productivity and mask the positive effects of plant biodiversity on primary production. Our results highlight the complex independent and interactive effects of biodiversity between adjacent trophic levels and emphasize the importance of performing biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments in a realistic multi-trophic context.     

Consistency of effects of tropical‐forest disturbance on species composition and richness relative to use of indicator taxa

Lawton et al. (1998) found, in a highly cited study, that the species richness of 8 taxa each responds differently to anthropogenic disturbance in Cameroon forests. Recent developments in conservation science suggest that net number of species is an insensitive measure of change and that understanding which species are affected by disturbance is more important. It is also recognized that all disturbance types are not equal in their effect on species and that grouping species according to function rather than taxonomy is more informative of responses of biodiversity to change. In a reanalysis of most of the original Cameroon data set (canopy and ground ants, termites, canopy beetles, nematodes, and butterflies), we focused on changes in species and functional composition rather than richness and used a more inclusive measure of forest disturbance based on 4 component drivers of change: years since disturbance, tree cover, soil compaction, and degree of tree removal. Effects of disturbance on compositional change were largely concordant between taxa. Contrary to Lawton et al.’s findings, species richness for most groups did not decline with disturbance level, providing support for the view that trends in species richness at local scales do not reflect the resilience of ecosystems to disturbance. Disturbance affected species composition more strongly than species richness for butterflies, canopy beetles, and litter ants. For these groups, disturbance caused species replacements rather than just species loss. Only termites showed effects of disturbance on species richness but not composition, indicating species loss without replacement. Although disturbance generally caused changes in composition, the strength of this relationship depended on the disturbance driver. Butterflies, litter ants, and nematodes were correlated with amount of tree cover, canopy beetles were most strongly correlated with time since disturbance, and termites were most strongly correlated with degree of soil disturbance. There were moderately divergent responses to disturbance between functional feeding groups. Disturbance was most strongly correlated with compositional differences of herbivores within beetles and nematodes and humus feeders within termites. Our results suggest that consideration of the impact of different forms of disturbance on species and functional composition, rather than on net numbers of species, is important when assessing the impacts of disturbance on biodiversity.     

平原河网地区滨岸带外来植物入侵现状及影响研究——以上海青浦区为例

河流滨岸带作为一种典型的开放系统,在受到外界干扰的条件下极易被外来植物所入侵并受到严重影响。以上海青浦区为例,通过对河流滨岸带生态系统入侵植物分布及现状调查,以及对两种入侵植物：白花三叶草（Trifolium repens）和加拿大一枝黄花（Solidago canadensis）群落的物种多样性及其土壤特性的实证研究,探讨外来植物入侵对河流滨岸带生态系统造成的影响。结果表明：目前该地区河流滨岸带外来入侵植物共有14科24种,其科、种数分别占到该生态系统所有植物的48．3％与26．1％。入侵植物白花三叶草与加拿大一枝黄花在春、秋两季均显著降低了河流滨岸带植物群落的物种多样性。此外,两种人侵植物也对当地河流滨岸及土壤特性造成了不同程度的影响,其中对土壤含水量、pH值的影响最为显著。该研究填补了平原河网地区河流滨岸带生态系统外来植物入侵研究的空白,有助于今后开展对该生态系统的评价、恢复及管理工作。     

Key Features and Context‐Dependence of Fishery‐Induced Trophic Cascades

Abstract: Trophic cascades triggered by fishing have profound implications for marine ecosystems and the socioeconomic systems that depend on them. With the number of reported cases quickly growing, key features and commonalities have emerged. Fishery‐induced trophic cascades often display differential response times and nonlinear trajectories among trophic levels and can be accompanied by shifts in alternative states. Furthermore, their magnitude appears to be context dependent, varying as a function of species diversity, regional oceanography, local physical disturbance, habitat complexity, and the nature of the fishery itself. To conserve and manage exploited marine ecosystems, there is a pressing need for an improved understanding of the conditions that promote or inhibit the cascading consequences of fishing. Future research should investigate how the trophic effects of fishing interact with other human disturbances, identify strongly interacting species and ecosystem features that confer resilience to exploitation, determine ranges of predator depletion that elicit trophic cascades, pinpoint antecedents that signal ecosystem state shifts, and quantify variation in trophic rates across oceanographic conditions. This information will advance predictive models designed to forecast the trophic effects of fishing and will allow managers to better anticipate and avoid fishery‐induced trophic cascades.     

Abundance declines of a native forb have nonlinear impacts on grassland invasion resistance

The effects of declining plant biodiversity on ecosystem processes are well studied, with most investigations examining the role of species richness declines rather than declines of species abundance. Using grassland mesocosms, we examined how the abundance of a native, resident species, Hemizonia congesta (hayfield tarweed), affected exotic Centaurea solstitialis (yellow starthistle) invasion. We found that progressive H. congesta abundance declines had threshold effects on invasion resistance, with initial declines resulting in minor increases in invasion and subsequent declines leading to accelerating increases in invader performance. Reduced invasion resistance was explained by increased resource availability as H. congesta declined. We also found evidence that resident abundance might indirectly affect invasion by mediating invader impact on resident competitors; C. solstitialis disproportionately reduced H. congesta biomass in low-abundance rather than high-abundance populations. H. congesta's direct and indirect effects on invasion resistance illustrate that an individual species' declining abundance can have accelerating, deleterious effects on ecosystem functions of conservation value.