Content area
Full Text
About the Authors:
Tessa B. Francis
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: University of Washington Tacoma, Puget Sound Institute, Tacoma, Washington, United States of America
Elizabeth M. Wolkovich
Current address: Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
Affiliations National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America, The Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Mark D. Scheuerell
Affiliation: Fish Ecology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
Stephen L. Katz
Current address: School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
Affiliation: Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
Elizabeth E. Holmes
Affiliation: Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
Stephanie E. Hampton
Current address: Center for Environmental Research, Education and Outreach, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
Affiliation: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
Introduction
One of the most important challenges facing ecologists is specifying how global change will affect community stability and the production of associated critical ecosystem services. Community stability is mediated by species interactions, which are sensitive to changing environmental conditions [1], [2], and therefore estimating the effects of environmental drivers on food web dynamics is critical for understanding how anthropogenic forces have altered ecosystems and for anticipating further change [3], [4]. Analyzing food web dynamics is complicated in part because the communities we observe are likely not in “equilibrium” as we might have once expected [5]. There is increasing evidence that the structure of communities and the nature of species' responses to each other and to their environments are not static, but rather shift over time. In particular, anthropogenic pressures may be pushing communities further from equilibrium [6], with communities exhibiting a variety of non-equilibrium dynamics from smooth trends to abrupt step changes [7]. Changes in abiotic conditions of ecosystems can directly and indirectly affect food web structure [8]. Thus, food...