Joint effects of nutrients and contaminants on the dynamics of a food chain in marine ecosystems.
We analyze the joint effect of contaminants and nutrient loading on population dynamics of marine food chains by means of bifurcation analysis. Contaminant toxicity is assumed to alter mortality of some species with a sigmoidal dose-response relationship. A generic effect of pollutants is to delay transitions to complex dynamical states towards higher nutrient load values, but more counterintuitive consequences arising from indirect effects are described. In particular, the top predator seems to be the species more affected by pollutants, even when contaminant is toxic only to lower trophic levels.
Bacelar
Flora S
FS
IFISC, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (CSIC-UIB), Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain. emilio@ifisc.uib.es
Dueri
Sibylle
S
Hernández-García
Emilio
E
Zaldívar
José-Manuel
JM
D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D005502:Food; D020387:Food Chain; D008954:Models, Biological; D010933:Plankton / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical