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Miguel B. Araújo Lab

Predicting the effects of environmental change on biodiversity

You are here: Home / Research Highlights / Climate shapes community trophic structures and humans simplify them

Climate shapes community trophic structures and humans simplify them

  • Nature Communications (2019 )
  • Authors: Manuel Mendoza & Miguel Araújo
  • Link to article: https://rdcu.be/bWUfI

Nature’s complexity is intriguing, but the circumstances determining whether or how order emerges from such complexity remains a matter of extensive research. Using the geographical distributions and food preferences of all terrestrial mammal species with masses >3 kg, we show that large mammals group into feeding guilds (species exploiting similar resources) and that these guilds form trophic structures that vary across biomes globally. We identify five trophic structures closely matching climate variability and named them boreal, temperate, semiarid, seasonal tropical and humid tropical owing to their relative overlap with the distribution of biomes. We also find that human activities simplify trophic structures, generally transitioning them to species-poorer states. Detected transitions include boreal and temperate structures becoming depauperate or seasonal- and humid-tropical becoming semiarid. Whether the observed generalities among trophic structures of large mammals are indicative of patterns across whole food webs is matter for further investigation. The results help refine projections of the effects of environmental change on the trophic structure of large mammals.

 

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News

  • Geopolitics of climate change
  • Highly Cited Researcher 2019
  • Miguel B. Araújo wins National Environmental Prize "Fernando Pereira"
  • Workshop: Climate Change for Journalists
  • Pessoa Award 2018 Reception

Outreach

  • Climate determination of trophic structures - A tribute to Alexander von Humboldt
  • Geopolitics of climate change
  • Biogeographic analysis of trophic structures reveals the signature of climate and people
  • Iberian Ponds
  • Da viabilidade da vida na Terra

Opportunities

  • Post doc - Predicting Community Trophic Structures in Time
  • La Caixa PhD studentship to work in global conservation prioritisation
  • PhD Studentship in PredWeb Project
  • Postdoc Position in Alien Trade Project
  • Permanent positions in Biogeography and Conservation Biology

Research Highlights

Climate shapes community trophic structures and humans simplify them

The marine fish food web is globally connected

Standards for data and models in biodiversity assessments

The effect of multiple biotic interaction types on species persistence

Anthropogenic range contractions bias species climate change forecasts

View All

Books

Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions

Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions

Atlas of Biodiversity Risk

Atlas of Biodiversity Risk

Spatial Conservation Prioritization

Spatial Conservation Prioritization

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