Simon Thomas: Simplification of a benthic ecological network in response to climate change stress
Intertidal benthic sediments are abundant along estuarine coastlines and carry out important ecosystem functions such as nutrient recycling and primary production. Ecosystem functions are underpinned by the community interacting with the environment around them, creating an ecological network. Anthropogenic climate change is causing sea level rise and extreme weather events such as storms, which can lead to terrigenous sediment deposition events. To assess how these stressors affect ecological network architecture, we simulated combined sea level rise and storm derived terrigenous sediment deposition on an intertidal soft sediment flat in Aotearoa New Zealand. We constructed ecological networks using multiple regression models, and observed network simplification with respect to the number and strength of connections between explanatory community and sediment characteristics to ecosystem functions. These findings reflect a loss of resilience with climate change stress, a more subtle response that could be an early warning sign of an ecosystem tipping point.