The temperature dependence of ecological interaction networks

With climate warming, we are turning up the heat on ecological interaction networks. Nonetheless, the community impacts of climate warming have – to our knowledge – not been explored from a coherent network perspective.

In this project, we characterise the temperature-dependence of ecological interaction networks by developing a theoretical framework that describes the dependency of realised network structure on thermal conditions, and validate this framework with observations at the levels of individuals, populations and communities.

To this aim, we use a set of interaction networks from an extremely energy-limited environment: Northeast Greenland. We draw on ecophysiological experiments and mesocosm experiments aimed at quantifying the temperature responses of individual taxa and links, and on extant time series of the same interaction network observed during a quarter of a century of rapid climate change.

By empirically implementing the framework with the dynamics of a unified model system, we establish the applicability of the framework, examine the extent of changes that have already occurred, and quantify what future to expect under realistic climate scenarios.