Environmental context determines pollution impacts on ecosystem functioning
Publiceringsår
2023
Upphovspersoner
Burdon, Francis J.; Reyes, Marta; Schönenberger, Urs; Räsänen, Katja; Tiegs, Scott D.; Eggen, Rik I. L.; Stamm, Christian
Abstrakt
Global change assessments have typically ignored synthetic chemical pollution, despite the rapid increase of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and industrial chemicals in the environment. Part of the problem reflects the multifarious origins of these micropollutants, which can derive from urban and agricultural sources. Understanding how micropollutants harm ecosystems is a major scientific challenge due to asymmetries of stress across trophic levels and ecological surprises generated by multiple drivers interacting in human-impacted landscapes. We used field assays above and below municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 60 sampling locations across 20 Swiss streams to test how micropollutants and nutrients originating from WWTPs affect two trophic levels (microbes and detritivores) and their role in leaf litter processing. Wastewater impacts were asymmetric across trophic levels, with the detritivore contribution declining relative to microbial-driven decomposition. The strength of negative impacts were context dependent, peaking at sites with the highest upstream abundances of detritivorous invertebrates. Diffuse pollution from intensive agriculture and wastewater-born micropollutants contributed to reduced litter processing rates, including indirect effects apparently mediated through negative influences of insecticides on detritivores. Asymmetries in stress responses across trophic levels can introduce quantitative changes in consumer–resource dynamics and leaf litter processing. This means functional redundancies at different trophic levels are insufficient to compensate for biodiversity losses, causing environmental stressors such as chemical pollutants to have pervasive ecosystem-level impacts.
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Publikationstyp
Publikationsform
Artikel
Moderpublikationens typ
Tidning
Artikelstyp
En originalartikel
Målgrupp
VetenskapligKollegialt utvärderad
Kollegialt utvärderadUKM:s publikationstyp
A1 Originalartikel i en vetenskaplig tidskriftPublikationskanalens uppgifter
Öppen tillgång
Öppen tillgänglighet i förläggarens tjänst
Ja
Öppen tillgång till publikationskanalen
Delvis öppen publikationskanal
Parallellsparad
Ja
Övriga uppgifter
Vetenskapsområden
Miljövetenskap; Ekologi, evolutionsbiologi
Nyckelord
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Publiceringsland
Förenade kungariket
Förlagets internationalitet
Internationell
Språk
engelska
Internationell sampublikation
Ja
Sampublikation med ett företag
Nej
DOI
10.1111/oik.09131
Publikationen ingår i undervisnings- och kulturministeriets datainsamling
Ja