Eco-evolutionary emergence of macroecological scaling in plankton communities

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wickman, Jonas; Litchman, Elena; Klausmeier, Christopher A.
• 署名单位: Michigan State University; Michigan State University; Carnegie Institution for Science; Michigan State University; Michigan State University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8563
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adk6901
• 发表日期: 2024-02-16
• 页码: 777-782
• 关键词: biomass-size spectra; nutrient enrichment; metabolic theory; fresh-water; phytoplankton; patterns; marine; ecosystems; GROWTH; biodiversity

摘要

Macroecological scaling patterns, such as between prey and predator biomass, are fundamental to our understanding of the rules of biological organization and ecosystem functioning. Although these scaling patterns are ubiquitous, how they arise is poorly understood. To explain these patterns, we used an eco-evolutionary predator-prey model parameterized using data for phytoplankton and zooplankton. We show that allometric scaling relationships at lower levels of biological organization, such as body-size scaling of nutrient uptake and predation, give rise to scaling relationships at the food web and ecosystem levels. Our predicted macroecological scaling exponents agree well with observed values across ecosystems. Our findings explicitly connect scaling relationships at different levels of biological organization to ecological and evolutionary mechanisms, yielding testable hypotheses for how observed macroecological patterns emerge.