Ecological networks articles from across Nature Portfolio

Nutrient enrichment is a major global change component. Here the authors show that soil acidification induced by nutrient enrichment, rather than changes in mineral nutrient and carbon availability, modulates soil biodiversity-function relationships

Herbicides used in terrestrial environments pollute coastal ecosystems. Here, the authors analyse the presence of 32 herbicides at 661 bays and gulfs worldwide from 1990 to 2022, showing how under current herbicide stress, phytoplankton primary productivity was inhibited by more than 5% at 25%.

The authors use stomach contents from six fish species sampled for 12 years to show that warming shifts foraging behaviour to favour consumption of less energetically rewarding prey. Using food web models, they show that this flexible foraging could lead to reduced community biodiversity.

Climate warming can impact predators directly as well as indirectly by affecting their prey and habitat. How predators respond to such changes is largely unknown. Now, experimental work shows the ability of spiders to adjust their webs in response to warming-induced changes in plant communities that alter prey size distributions.

Species co-occurrences have long been used as proxies for interactions, but not all co-occurring species interact. A study now reveals that super-generalist consumers realize a higher portion of their potential interactions in bipartite 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.

A study of plant–pollinator networks in a fragmented island landscape in China finds that habitat edges might not be bad for biodiversity.

Co-culture systems produce more food per land unit — offering a sustainable solution to food security. The first step may lie in optimizing for diverse species interaction networks, much like the way engineers design manufacturing systems for optimal productivity.

Chemical and pathogenic hazards in aquaculture supply chains threaten the provision of safe aquatic food. The Seafood Risk Tool is an integrated, semi-quantitative system that develops bespoke supply chain and risk management strategies.