title: Experimenting with ecosystem interaction networks in search of threshold potentials in real-world marine ecosystems.
abstract: Thresholds profoundly affect our understanding and management of ecosystem dynamics, but we have yet to develop practical techniques to assess the risk that thresholds will be crossed. Combining ecological knowledge of critical system interdependencies with a large-scale experiment, we tested for breaks in the ecosystem interaction network to identify threshold potential in real-world ecosystem dynamics. Our experiment with the bivalves Macomona liliana and Austrovenus stutchburyi on marine sandflats in New Zealand demonstrated that reductions in incident sunlight changed the interaction network between sediment biogeochemical fluxes, productivity, and macrofauna. By demonstrating loss of positive feedbacks and changes in the architecture of the network, we provide mechanistic evidence that stressors lead to break points in dynamics, which theory predicts predispose a system to a critical transition.
authors.forename: Simon F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Thrush
authors.forename: Judi E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hewitt
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parkes
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lohrer
authors.forename: Conrad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pilditch
authors.forename: Sarah A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Woodin
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Wethey
authors.forename: Mariachiara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiantore
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Asnaghi
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Juan
authors.forename: Casper
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kraan
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rodil
authors.forename: Candida
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Savage
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Colen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049872:Bivalvia / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D009520:New Zealand; D009792:Oceans and Seas