Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

Lake temperature and nutrient levels interact to reorganize ecological networks

Causal links between plankton taxa were inferred using long-term data from ten Swiss lakes, revealing the effect of warming and nutrient levels on entire ecological networks. The resulting model suggests that warming generally reduces the number of network interactions and alters which taxa control the food webs.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A conceptual model of a plankton network.

References

  1. Bartley, T. J. et al. Food web rewiring in a changing world. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 345–354 (2019). A review article on how food webs will change in response to climate change.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Boit, A., Martinez, N. D., Williams, R. J. & Gaedke, U. Mechanistic theory and modelling of complex food-web dynamics in Lake Constance. Ecol. Lett. 15, 594–602 (2012). This paper contains the ecological knowledge on plankton communities used in this study (that is, a conceptual model of how plankton guilds interact in nature).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sugihara, G. et al. Detecting causality in complex ecosystems. Science 338, 496–500 (2012). This paper presents a method for studying causal links in complex ecosystems.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dornelas, M. et al. BioTIME: a database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 27, 760–786 (2018). A time-series database of species identities and abundances of ecological communities.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Merz, E. et al. Disruption of ecological networks in lakes by climate change and nutrient fluctuations. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01615-6 (2023).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lake temperature and nutrient levels interact to reorganize ecological networks. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 320–321 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01623-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01623-6

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing