Understanding how biological diversity affects ecosystem functioning is a key question in modern ecology. This is of particular importance in the general context of recent global changes caused by human activities, such as water abstraction, flow regulation, shifts in agricultural practices, contamination, climate changes, and biological invasions. These changes are affecting biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and their complex interactions simultaneously. However, our ability to understand how genes, individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems may respond to such changes is limited, despite ecologists frequently being requested to provide policymakers and managers with predictions. Indeed, the species that composed biodiversity can establish complex trophic links between them in the ecosystems. This structure of food webs is under the permanent constraint of community dynamics, which connects species, populations, communities, and ecosystems. Therefore, the response of food webs to perturbations can help ecologists to better understand the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning.
This Research Topic is aimed at understanding how changes in environmental characteristics arising from global changes can affect biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the relationship between them. In this topic, global changes (e.g., contamination, habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation, climate change, and biological invasions) will be considered as the non-random sources of perturbation, occurring in the wild, to test some ecological hypotheses (theoretical aspect); while aiming to understand and predict their ecological consequences to limit their negative effects (applied aspect). Specifically, this topic will aim at addressing how non-random alteration of biodiversity following sequential exposure to perturbations may affect ecosystem functioning. Advancements in these areas of research are sure to reduce current levels of uncertainty in the assessment of ecological risks posed by global changes and to optimize the conservation of imperiled ecosystems. Therefore, the topic will be composed of three objectives. Objective 1: Investigating the effects of global changes on different levels of biological diversity (from genetic to ecosystem). Objective 2: Determine the consequences of these biodiversity changes on food webs and ecosystem functioning. Objective 3: Based on the results from the above objectives, determine the ecological risks, functional consequences, and trophic transfer of different scenarios of global changes on ecosystems.
Ecologists and biologists are welcomed to submit high-quality research papers and reviews to this Research Topic. We hope these articles can present the state-of-the-art of theories, and more importantly, can link our theoretical perception of ecology to the applied necessity to quantify and predict the effects of global changes on population, community, and ecosystem-level processes.
The Research Topic covers all subjects related to the effects of global changes on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, for instance:
• Climate change and ecological niche models
• Biological invasions, functional redundancy, and ecosystem functioning
• Habitat fragmentation and degradation, spatiotemporal variation pattern, and biodiversity loss
• Contamination and trophic transfer
• Phenotypic changes, genetic variability, and ecosystem functioning
• Bioindicators confirmation for different non-random sources of perturbations
• Management, conservation policy, and applications
Understanding how biological diversity affects ecosystem functioning is a key question in modern ecology. This is of particular importance in the general context of recent global changes caused by human activities, such as water abstraction, flow regulation, shifts in agricultural practices, contamination, climate changes, and biological invasions. These changes are affecting biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and their complex interactions simultaneously. However, our ability to understand how genes, individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems may respond to such changes is limited, despite ecologists frequently being requested to provide policymakers and managers with predictions. Indeed, the species that composed biodiversity can establish complex trophic links between them in the ecosystems. This structure of food webs is under the permanent constraint of community dynamics, which connects species, populations, communities, and ecosystems. Therefore, the response of food webs to perturbations can help ecologists to better understand the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning.
This Research Topic is aimed at understanding how changes in environmental characteristics arising from global changes can affect biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the relationship between them. In this topic, global changes (e.g., contamination, habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation, climate change, and biological invasions) will be considered as the non-random sources of perturbation, occurring in the wild, to test some ecological hypotheses (theoretical aspect); while aiming to understand and predict their ecological consequences to limit their negative effects (applied aspect). Specifically, this topic will aim at addressing how non-random alteration of biodiversity following sequential exposure to perturbations may affect ecosystem functioning. Advancements in these areas of research are sure to reduce current levels of uncertainty in the assessment of ecological risks posed by global changes and to optimize the conservation of imperiled ecosystems. Therefore, the topic will be composed of three objectives. Objective 1: Investigating the effects of global changes on different levels of biological diversity (from genetic to ecosystem). Objective 2: Determine the consequences of these biodiversity changes on food webs and ecosystem functioning. Objective 3: Based on the results from the above objectives, determine the ecological risks, functional consequences, and trophic transfer of different scenarios of global changes on ecosystems.
Ecologists and biologists are welcomed to submit high-quality research papers and reviews to this Research Topic. We hope these articles can present the state-of-the-art of theories, and more importantly, can link our theoretical perception of ecology to the applied necessity to quantify and predict the effects of global changes on population, community, and ecosystem-level processes.
The Research Topic covers all subjects related to the effects of global changes on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, for instance:
• Climate change and ecological niche models
• Biological invasions, functional redundancy, and ecosystem functioning
• Habitat fragmentation and degradation, spatiotemporal variation pattern, and biodiversity loss
• Contamination and trophic transfer
• Phenotypic changes, genetic variability, and ecosystem functioning
• Bioindicators confirmation for different non-random sources of perturbations
• Management, conservation policy, and applications