New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach
Network approaches can shed light on the structure and stability of complex marine communities. In recent years, such approaches have been successfully applied to study polar ecosystems, improving our knowledge on how they might respond to ongoing environmental changes. The Weddell Sea is one of the...
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00064591 2023-05-15T13:49:22+02:00 New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach Marina, Tomás I. Saravia, Leonardo A. Kortsch, Susanne 2023-01 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1518 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00064591 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/egusphere-2022-1518/egusphere-2022-1518.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1518 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00064591 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/egusphere-2022-1518/egusphere-2022-1518.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess CC-BY article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2023 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1518 2023-01-23T00:13:25Z Network approaches can shed light on the structure and stability of complex marine communities. In recent years, such approaches have been successfully applied to study polar ecosystems, improving our knowledge on how they might respond to ongoing environmental changes. The Weddell Sea is one of the most studied marine ecosystems outside the Antarctic Peninsula in the Southern Ocean. Yet, few studies consider the known complexity of the Weddell Sea food web, which in its current form comprises 490 species and 16041 predator-prey interactions. Here we analysed the Weddell Sea food web, focusing on the species and trophic interactions that underpin ecosystem structure and stability. We estimated the strength for each interaction in the food web, characterised species position in the food web using unweighted and weighted food web properties, and analysed species’ roles with respect to the stability of the food web. We found that the distribution of the interaction strength (IS) at the food web level is asymmetric, with many weak interactions and few strong ones. We detected a positive relationship between species mean IS and two unweighted properties (i.e., trophic level and the total number of interactions). We also found that only a few species possess key positions in terms of food web stability. These species are characterised by high mean IS, mid to high trophic level, relatively high number of interactions, and mid to low trophic similarity. In this study, we integrated unweighted and weighted food web information, enabling a more complete assessment of the ecosystem structure and function of the Weddell Sea food web. Our results provide new insights, which are important for the development of effective policies and management strategies, particularly given the ongoing initiative to implement a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Southern Ocean The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
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language |
English |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Marina, Tomás I. Saravia, Leonardo A. Kortsch, Susanne New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Network approaches can shed light on the structure and stability of complex marine communities. In recent years, such approaches have been successfully applied to study polar ecosystems, improving our knowledge on how they might respond to ongoing environmental changes. The Weddell Sea is one of the most studied marine ecosystems outside the Antarctic Peninsula in the Southern Ocean. Yet, few studies consider the known complexity of the Weddell Sea food web, which in its current form comprises 490 species and 16041 predator-prey interactions. Here we analysed the Weddell Sea food web, focusing on the species and trophic interactions that underpin ecosystem structure and stability. We estimated the strength for each interaction in the food web, characterised species position in the food web using unweighted and weighted food web properties, and analysed species’ roles with respect to the stability of the food web. We found that the distribution of the interaction strength (IS) at the food web level is asymmetric, with many weak interactions and few strong ones. We detected a positive relationship between species mean IS and two unweighted properties (i.e., trophic level and the total number of interactions). We also found that only a few species possess key positions in terms of food web stability. These species are characterised by high mean IS, mid to high trophic level, relatively high number of interactions, and mid to low trophic similarity. In this study, we integrated unweighted and weighted food web information, enabling a more complete assessment of the ecosystem structure and function of the Weddell Sea food web. Our results provide new insights, which are important for the development of effective policies and management strategies, particularly given the ongoing initiative to implement a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Marina, Tomás I. Saravia, Leonardo A. Kortsch, Susanne |
author_facet |
Marina, Tomás I. Saravia, Leonardo A. Kortsch, Susanne |
author_sort |
Marina, Tomás I. |
title |
New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
title_short |
New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
title_full |
New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
title_fullStr |
New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
title_full_unstemmed |
New insights into the Weddell Sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
title_sort |
new insights into the weddell sea ecosystem applying a quantitative network approach |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1518 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00064591 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/egusphere-2022-1518/egusphere-2022-1518.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Southern Ocean The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Southern Ocean The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Southern Ocean Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Southern Ocean Weddell Sea |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1518 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00064591 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/egusphere-2022-1518/egusphere-2022-1518.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1518 |
_version_ |
1766251252438532096 |