Dissimilarity of vertebrate trophic interactions reveals spatial uniqueness but functional redundancy across Europe

• Published in: Current Biology
• Main Authors: Gaüzère, Pierre, Botella, Christophe, Poggiato, Giovanni, O'Connor, Louise, M.J., Di Marco, Moreno, Dragonetti, Chiara, Maiorano, Luigi, Renaud, Julien, Thuiller, Wilfried
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (Fédération OSUG)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Scientific Data Management (ZENITH), Inria Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée (CRISAM), Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Laboratoire d'Informatique de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM), Modèles statistiques bayésiens et des valeurs extrêmes pour données structurées et de grande dimension (STATIFY), Inria Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann (LJK), Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Laxenburg (IIASA), Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University Rome (UNIROMA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Food web; Tetrapods; Beta diversity; Conservation biogeography; Distinctiveness; Biodiversity; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://hal-lirmm.ccsd.cnrs.fr/lirmm-04696017; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.069

International audience Identifying areas that contain species assemblages not found elsewhere in a region is central to conservation planning. Species assemblages contain networks of species interactions that underpin species dynamics, ecosystem processes, and contributions to people. Yet the uniqueness of interaction networks in a regional context has rarely been assessed. Here, we estimated the spatial uniqueness of 10,000 terrestrial vertebrate trophic networks across Europe (1,164 species, 50,408 potential interactions) based on the amount of similarity between all local networks mapped at a 10 km resolution. Our results revealed more unique networks in the Arctic bioregion, but also in southern Europe and isolated islands. We then contrasted the uniqueness of trophic networks with their vulnerability to human footprint and future climate change and measured their coverage within protected areas. This analysis revealed that unique networks situated in southern Europe were particularly exposed to human footprint and that unique networks in the Arctic might be at risk from future climate change. However, considering interaction networks at the level of trophic groups, rather than species, revealed that the general structure of trophic networks was redundant across the continent, in contrast to species’ interactions. We argue that proactive European conservation strategies might gain relevance by turning their eyes toward interaction networks that are both unique and vulnerable.