文章基本信息

标题：Trophic cascades promote threshold-like shifts in pelagic marine ecosystems
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作者：Michele Casini ; Joakim Hjelm ; Juan-Carlos Molinero 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2009
卷号：106
期号：1
页码：197-202
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0806649105
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Fisheries can have a large impact on marine ecosystems, because the effects of removing large predatory fish may cascade down the food web. The implications of these cascading processes on system functioning and resilience remain a source of intense scientific debate. By using field data covering a 30-year period, we show for the Baltic Sea that the underlying mechanisms of trophic cascades produced a shift in ecosystem functioning after the collapse of the top predator cod. We identified an ecological threshold, corresponding to a planktivore abundance of {approx}17 x 1010 individuals, that separates 2 ecosystem configurations in which zooplankton dynamics are driven by either hydroclimatic forces or predation pressure. Abundances of the planktivore sprat above the threshold decouple zooplankton dynamics from hydrological circumstances. The current strong regulation by sprat of the feeding resources for larval cod may hinder cod recovery and the return of the ecosystem to a prior state. This calls for the inclusion of a food web perspective in management decisions.
关键词：alternative dynamics ; ecological thresholds ; ecosystem resilience ; Baltic Sea ; climate versus top-down control