Global change affecting trophic interactions between plants and other interactions
Climate change influences trophic interactions. Drivers of global change (e.g. increased CO2 or nitrogen levels or invasions) can alter competitive interactions between different trophic levels. These drivers can perform effects on intensity of pathogen infection, herbivory, predation or they can be helpful for new invasive species (1).
Truth is that global change drivers could have some positive impacts on nature f.e. risen CO2 or N levels can have positive effects for plant growth (2) or nectar production (3), but negative effects are probably more frequent. Example of negative effect could be competition of pollinator between native and alien plant (4, 5) or shift in timing of plant activities (in their phenology; 6,7). In first case native plant could not be pollinated because pollinator will prefer alien plant and in second case specific pollinator and pollinated plant have “bad timing” because pollinator will not be present at the time when plant is flowering. For pollination mutualisms could be also destructive land use and habitat fragmentation which can easily affect plants through loss of pollinator diversity (8).
Alien plant species could also alter fungal and microbial communities in soil (9) which could have an effect on N and P deposition or they can just overgrow native species because of lack of natural predators.
Global change drivers could also favour some species, for example C4 plants could grow in higher temperatures (9) which can then be more competetively successful, and they can also affect plant-herbivory interactions for example when CO2 levels are increased, herbivore activity often decline (11). Alien plants can also support herbivores which have then higher reproductive capacity and they can more readily attack native species (12). Invasions of plants into new localities could alter either belowground biota, but in longer term also another (native) plants, like Myrica faya in Hawaii where this plant caused more than fourfold increase of soil nitrogen input and subsequent increase of ecosystem productivity (13).
Examples mentioned above shows either positive but also negative impacts of global change drivers on trophic interactions. Plant abundance is affected by both belowground and aboveground trophic level interactions. These species interactions will alter during climate change, and this will result that some species became rare or even extinct and some will became more abundant.
1 Tylianakis, J. M., Didham, R. K., Bascompte, J., & Wardle, D. A. (2008). Global change and species interactions in terrestrial ecosystems. Ecology letters, 11(12), 1351-1363.
2 Muñoz, A., Celedon-Neghme, C., Cavieres, L.A. & Arroyo, M.T.K. (2005). Bottom-up effects of nutrient availability on flower production, pollinator visitation, and seed output in a high-Andean shrub. Oecologia, 143, 126–135.
3 Davis, M.A. (2003b). Biotic globalization: does competition from introduced species threaten biodiversity? Bioscience, 53, 481–489.
4 Lopezaraiza-Mikel, M., Hayes, R., Whalley, M. & Memmott, J. (2007). The impact of an alien plant on a native plant–pollinator network: an experimental approach. Ecol. Lett., 10, 539–550.
5 Aizen, M.A., Morales, C.L. & Morales, J.M. (2008). Invasive mutualists erode native pollination webs. PLoS Biol., 6, e31.
6 Memmott, J., Craze, P.G., Waser, N.M. & Price, M.V. (2007). Global warming and the disruption of plant–pollinator interactions. Ecol. Lett., 10, 710–717
7 Cleland, E. E., Chuine, I., Menzel, A., Mooney, H. A., & Schwartz, M. D. (2007). Shifting plant phenology in response to global change. Trends in ecology & evolution, 22(7), 357-365.
8 Chacoff, N.P. & Aizen, M.A. (2006). Edge effects on flower-visiting insects in grapefruit plantations bordering premontane subtropical forest. J. Appl. Ecol., 43, 18–27.
9 Mummey, D.L. & Rillig, M.C. (2006). The invasive plant species Centaurea maculosa alters arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in the field. Plant Soil, 288, 81–90.
10 Pringle, A., Adams, R. I., Cross, H. B., & Bruns, T. D. (2009). The ectomycorrhizal fungus Amanita phalloides was introduced and is expanding its range on the west coast of North America. Molecular Ecology, 18(5), 817-833.
11 Bezemer, T.M. & Jones, T.H. (1998). Plant–insect herbivore interactions in elevated atmospheric CO2: quantitative analyses and guild effects. Oikos, 82, 212–222.
12 Rand, T.A. & Louda, S.M. (2004). Exotic weed invasion increases the susceptibility of native plants to attack by a biocontrol herbivore.Ecology, 85, 1548–1554
13 P. M. Vitousek, L. R. Walker, Ecol. Monogr. 59, 24(1989). M. J. Swift, O. W. Heal, J. M. Anderson, Decompositio
Tomáš Figura
Author has presented several interesting examples of alteration in trophic interaction as consequence of global change mainly global climate change. Theoretically, global climate change affects trophic interaction, which does not always causes threat to species. Results demonstrating the threat to species survival as consequences of such change are rare. Chemicals and invasive species are also equally serious issues in trophic change and biodiversity conservation. Use of insecticides and pesticides in agriculture has seriously affected the pollinators and non-target insects as well as trophic interaction across the globe. Similarly, invasive species have also altered the trophic interaction and threatened biodiversity. There are several cases, which show that introduced plants have supported the native pollinators; this does not necessarily means to harm to native plant species.