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Systematic loss in biotic heterogeneity but not biodiversity across multiple trophic levels in Erhai lake, China

Systematic loss in biotic heterogeneity but not biodiversity across multiple trophic levels in Erhai lake, China
Systematic loss in biotic heterogeneity but not biodiversity across multiple trophic levels in Erhai lake, China

Anthropogenic disturbances and climate change have significantly altered the biotic composition across many ecosystems, leading to changes in biodiversity and even ecological collapse. An ecosystem comprises multiple trophic levels, and the issue how these disturbances affect their assembly processes remains unclear. Ecological stability of assemblages was maintained by their structure, and thus, revealing structure changes across trophic levels could improve our understanding of how ecosystems response to disturbances as a whole. In this study, we combined methods from palaeolimnology, ecology and network analysis, and observed the changes of biodiversity and network structure of two trophic levels (algae - diatoms and zoobenthos - chironomids) in Erhai lake, Southwest China over the last century. Results showed nutrient enrichment induced shifts in diatom and chironomid assemblages at ∼2001 CE, suggesting that the shift in Erhai lake may have occurred at multiple trophic levels. We found biodiversity exhibit different trends across trophic levels as it decreased in diatoms but increased in chironomids. However, network skewness declined in both trophic levels, indicating the common loss of biotic heterogeneity. The consistent decline of skewness among trophic levels long before the compositional shift is a potential parameter to warn of the shifts in lake ecosystems.

Assembly processes, Chironomids, Diatoms, Ecological shift, Eutrophication, Network skewness
0048-9697
Zheng, Wenxiu
ed47723a-d8eb-4a12-b2bb-ce5104a90cb5
Zhang, Enlou
53b50c45-bb12-4d5f-86e4-e656d44bcfa1
Langdon, Peter Guy
95b97671-f9fe-4884-aca6-9aa3cd1a6d7f
Wang, Rong
d87aad80-4e91-404c-bc22-5a591ceee83c
Zheng, Wenxiu
ed47723a-d8eb-4a12-b2bb-ce5104a90cb5
Zhang, Enlou
53b50c45-bb12-4d5f-86e4-e656d44bcfa1
Langdon, Peter Guy
95b97671-f9fe-4884-aca6-9aa3cd1a6d7f
Wang, Rong
d87aad80-4e91-404c-bc22-5a591ceee83c

Zheng, Wenxiu, Zhang, Enlou, Langdon, Peter Guy and Wang, Rong (2023) Systematic loss in biotic heterogeneity but not biodiversity across multiple trophic levels in Erhai lake, China. Science of the Total Environment, 906, [167479]. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167479).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Anthropogenic disturbances and climate change have significantly altered the biotic composition across many ecosystems, leading to changes in biodiversity and even ecological collapse. An ecosystem comprises multiple trophic levels, and the issue how these disturbances affect their assembly processes remains unclear. Ecological stability of assemblages was maintained by their structure, and thus, revealing structure changes across trophic levels could improve our understanding of how ecosystems response to disturbances as a whole. In this study, we combined methods from palaeolimnology, ecology and network analysis, and observed the changes of biodiversity and network structure of two trophic levels (algae - diatoms and zoobenthos - chironomids) in Erhai lake, Southwest China over the last century. Results showed nutrient enrichment induced shifts in diatom and chironomid assemblages at ∼2001 CE, suggesting that the shift in Erhai lake may have occurred at multiple trophic levels. We found biodiversity exhibit different trends across trophic levels as it decreased in diatoms but increased in chironomids. However, network skewness declined in both trophic levels, indicating the common loss of biotic heterogeneity. The consistent decline of skewness among trophic levels long before the compositional shift is a potential parameter to warn of the shifts in lake ecosystems.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 28 September 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 September 2023
Published date: 5 October 2023
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China ( 2022YFF0801104 ) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 42025707 , 42171163 , 42207503 ). W.X.Z acknowledges the financial support of the Open Fund Project of the State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment ( 2022SKL001 ).
Keywords: Assembly processes, Chironomids, Diatoms, Ecological shift, Eutrophication, Network skewness

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 484212
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/484212
ISSN: 0048-9697
PURE UUID: ad2e9111-2566-46c9-8db0-7f4451e1cf59
ORCID for Peter Guy Langdon: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2724-2643

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Nov 2023 18:39
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:47

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Contributors

Author: Wenxiu Zheng
Author: Enlou Zhang
Author: Rong Wang

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