EDITORIAL article Front. Ecol. Evol., 22 February 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.863845

Human activity is affecting every ecosystem on Earth, with terrestrial biodiversity decreasing rapidly. influences materialize in the form of numerous, jointly acting factors, yet experimental study such joint impacts not well developed. We identify absence a systematic ordering system factors according to their properties (traits) as an impediment progress and offer priori trait-based factor c...

Global change is altering the movement of materials across landscapes in ways that likely have major consequences for the functioning and stability of ecosystems. For example, the export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems is increasing globally. This browning phenomenon is expected to alter the stability of recipient aquatic ecosystems, but theory provides ...

Here, we review consumer-resource (C-R) theory to show that the paradox of enrichment is a special case of a more general theoretical result. That is, we show that increased energy flux, relative to the consumer loss rate, makes C-R interactions top heavy (i.e., greater C:R biomass ratio) and less stable. We then review the literature on the attributes of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to a...

The transport of nutrients by migratory animals across ecosystem boundaries can significantly enrich recipient food webs, thereby shaping the ecosystems' structure and function. To illustrate the potential role of islands in enabling the transfer of matter across ecosystem boundaries to be gauged, we investigated the influence of seabirds on nitrogen input on islands. Basing our study on four w...

Ecosystem functioning is one of the most striking topics in ecological research. All human beings depend on the functioning of ecosystems and the services provided by ecosystems [1]. Ecosystem services provide food from e.g. agriculture and fish as well as clean water and air. Thus, the functioning of ecosystems is a crucial topic of experimental studies in ecology. The first known ecological e...

Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems are noted for their relative simplicity and limited trophic structure. In this context, knowledge of biotic interactions in structuring terrestrial soil communities would seem beneficial from a theoretical perspective as well as from a conservation perspective. Unfortunately, although biotic interactions are generally seen as being insignificant in these unique ...