Data from: Seasonal variations in planktonic food web structure affect stability by shifting the distribution of energy fluxes
Abstract
Seasonality in temperate ecosystems shapes species phenology, influencing interactions and food web structure. Variations in species richness and biomass affect trophic interaction strength, a crucial factor for community stability, which can be assessed through energy fluxes—an essential indicator of ecosystem function. Yet, we still have limited understanding on how energy fluxes and food web structure vary overtime and how the seasonal dynamics influence stability. We examined how the structure, energy fluxes, and stability of a highly resolved multitrophic lake food web change across seasons over three successive years. Two estimates representing different facets of stability were considered: resilience and reactivity. We found a strong seasonal pattern in food web structure, with higher complexity observed in summer and autumn. In addition, we found that more complex food webs are more reactive to perturbations, and consequently, less stable than simpler ones over short time-scale. This was influenced by a lower proportion of strong energy fluxes. Resilience was unaffected by seasonality, food web structure and energy fluxes, highlighting the need to account for multifaceted nature of stability. The seasonal variability of stability suggests that food webs may vary temporally in their vulnerability to environmental perturbations, which has important implications for ecosystem management.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.41ns1rnrr
Description of the data and file structure
We have submitted the raw data (data.zip) used to construct and analyze the Lake Geneva food web (dta.csv), the temperature dataset (temperature.csv), the R scripts (01_Lake_Geneva_Metaweb.R,02_Timepoints_Food_Webs.R,03_Energy_Fluxes.R,04_Statistical_Analyses.R,05_Plot_Results.R,create.jacob.R,get_niche_attributes_modified.R), as well as the food web data generated from the statistical analyses (metaweb.RData, snap_fw.RData).
dta.csv_Data
- date: Sampling date
- Group: Taxonomic level
- Family: Taxonomic level Family
- Genus: Taxonomic level Genus
- Tmin: Minimum body size (µm)
- Tm: Mean body size (µm)
- Tmax: Maximum body size (µm)
- Compartment: Pelagic, benthic or both
- Feeding_type: Feeding mode
- Bodymass: Mean individual body mass (g)
- Biomass: Population biomass (g)
- Season: Season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn)
temperature.csv_Data
- date: Sampling date
- min_depth_m: Minimum depth of water sampling (meters)
- max_depth_m: Maximum depth of water sampling (meters)
- Temperature: Water temperature (°C)
ciliates_traits.csv_Data
Functional traits of ciliates taxa.
- Kingdom: Taxonomic level Kingdom
- Clade: Taxonomic level Clade
- Superphylum: Taxonomic level Superphylum
- Phylum: Taxonomic level Phylum
- Subclass: Taxonomic level Subclass
- Order: Taxonomic level Order
- Family: Taxonomic level Family
- Genus: Taxonomic level Genus
- Species: Taxonomic level Species
- mode: heterotroph or NA
- Feeding_type: Feeding mode
- Food: Food product
- Tmin: Minimum of individual body size (µm)
- Tm: Mean individual body size (µm)
- Tmax: Maximum of individual body size (µm)
- Ref: Reference
- Comment: Note
"NA" values mean not available.
metaweb.RData_Data
A list describing the Lake Geneva metaweb generated by the "01.Lake_Geneva_Metaweb.R" script, including species metrics, trophic links, the interaction matrix, and color mappings.
snap_fw.RData_Data
A list generated by the "02.Timepoints_Food_Webs.R" script, containing a food web for each sampling date. Each list element provides detailed information on the corresponding timepoint-specific food web.
Param_reginvert.RData_Data
Data from Vagnon et al. (2021) used to fit the Allometric Niche model.
Code/software
get_niche_attributes_modified.R is a modified function from Vagnon et al. (2021), which uses the Param_reginvert file.
create.jacob.R is a modified function from Gauzens et al. (2019).
The R scripts used to perform statistical analyses of raw data must be executed in numerical order (01_Lake_Geneva_Metaweb.R,02_Timepoints_Food_Webs.R,03_Energy_Fluxes.R,04_Statistical_Analyses.R,05_Plot_Results.R)
R is required to run the scripts, which were created using version 4.2.2.
Annotations are provided throughout the scripts.