Climate Change and the Past, Present, and Future of Biotic Interactions

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2013 papers

Abstract

Biotic interactions drive key ecological and evolutionary processes and mediate ecosystem responses to climate change. The direction, frequency, and intensity of biotic interactions can in turn be altered by climate change. Understanding the complex interplay between climate and biotic interactions is thus essential for fully anticipating how ecosystems will respond to the fast rates of current warming, which are unprecedented since the end of the last glacial period. We highlight episodes of climate change that have disrupted ecosystems and trophic interactions over time scales ranging from years to millennia by changing species' relative abundances and geographic ranges, causing extinctions, and creating transient and novel communities dominated by generalist species and interactions. These patterns emerge repeatedly across disparate temporal and spatial scales, suggesting the possibility of similar underlying processes. Based on these findings, we identify knowledge gaps and fruitful areas for research that will further our understanding of the effects of climate change on ecosystems.

Related Papers

• → Trophic Shifts of a Generalist Consumer in Response to Resource Pulses(2011)21 cited
• → Seasonal change in spatial variability of eelgrass epifaunal community in relation to gradients of abiotic and biotic factors(2018)15 cited
• → Abiotic and biotic regulators of the Asian citrus psyllid populations.(2020)4 cited
• → The effect of some biotic and abiotic factors on the fertility of planktonic rotifer species(1980)18 cited
• → Relationships between biotic and abiotic components of broiler droppings fertilized pond ecosystems(2000)1 cited