Arnaud Sentis, Bart Haegeman, and José M. MontoyaPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
<p>Temperature and nutrients are two of the most important drivers of global change. Both can modify the elemental composition (i.e. stoichiometry) of primary producers and consumers. Yet their combined effect on the stoichiometry, dynamics, and stability of ecological communities remains largely unexplored. To fill this gap, we extended the Rosenzweig-MacArthur consumer-resource model by including thermal dependencies, nutrient dynamics, and stoichiometric constraints on both the primary producer and the consumer. We found that stoichiometric constraints dampen the paradox of enrichment and increased persistence at high nutrient levels. Nevertheless, they also reduced consumer persistence at extreme temperatures. Finally, we also found that stoichiometric constraints can strongly influence biomass distribution across trophic levels by modulating consumer assimilation efficiency and resource growth rates along the environmental gradients. Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for stoichiometric constraints as they can mediate the temperature and nutrient impact on the dynamics and functioning of ecological communities.</p>
temperature, stoichiometry, temporal variability, paradox of enrichment, trophic interactions, nutrient quota, consumer-resource dynamics, biomass structure.
Climate change, Community ecology, Food webs, Theoretical ecology, Thermal ecology
