What does trophic mismatch mean?
The lack of synchrony between the phenology of consumers and that of their resources can lead to a phenomenon called trophic mismatch, which may have important consequences on the reproductive success of herbivores.
What is phenological asynchrony?
Phenological asynchrony is a common and important natural phenomenon that affects interspecific interaction, resource allocation, species survival, and range shift in sympatric species. However, the underpinnings for regulating phenological asynchrony at physiological and molecular levels remains less explored.
What is phenology in biology?
phenology, the study of phenomena or happenings. It is applied to the recording and study of the dates of recurrent natural events (such as the flowering of a plant or the first or last appearance of a migrant bird) in relation to seasonal climatic changes. Phenology thus combines ecology with meteorology.
What causes phenological mismatch?
Phenological mismatch between interacting species may occur when the species use different environmental cues as a determinant of phenological events or when responsiveness to a specific cue is different between species [5,29].
What happens in a trophic cascade?
trophic cascade, an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling.
Is phenological a word?
— phenologic, phenological, adj. the study of natural phenomena that occur periodically, as migration or blossoming, and their relation to climate and changes of season.
What is phenology and why does it matter?
Phenology is nature’s calendar—when cherry trees bloom, when a robin builds its nest and when leaves turn color in the fall. Phenology is a key component of life on earth. Many birds time their nesting so that eggs hatch when insects are available to feed nestlings.
What is phenology and its classification?
Phenology defined as the ‘observation and investigation of the seasonal timing of life cycle events’ and how these are influenced by seasonal variations in climate, as well as other ecological factors (1).
What is phenological mismatch example?
For example, phenological mismatches might occur when organisms that typically interact, such as predator and prey or plant and pollinator, are no longer active at the same time. Or, in contrast, shifts in phenology could alleviate existing mismatches and promote the exploitation of newly available resources.
What is the purpose of tracking the Phenophases of plants and animals with nature’s notebook?
Nature’s Notebook gathers information on plant and animal phenology across the U.S. to be used for decision-making on local, national and global scales to ensure the continued vitality of our environment. Scientists alone cannot collect enough data: They need your help.
What is a trophic cascade example?
Another frequently cited example of a trophic cascade involves the sea otter-kelp ecosystem of the rocky reefs of the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific Ocean. In this ecosystem, the sea otter is the keystone species with sea urchins as its main food source.
Why are trophic cascades bad?
Effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems Because trophic cascades affected the rates of primary production and respiration by the lake as a whole, they affected rates of exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen between the lake and the atmosphere.
Is there systematic variation in phenological change across trophic levels?
For the first time we have explicitly demonstrated that there has been systematic variation in rates of phenological change among trophic levels, and that this has been apparent across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments in the United Kingdom.
How do trophic changes affect individual fitness and population size?
Phenological changes and developing asynchronies between trophic pairings (e. g. predators and their prey) have been linked to reductions in individual fitness and declines in the population size of focal species.
What is the difference between antagonistic and mutualistic trophic interactions?
In antagonistic trophic interactions, any mismatch will have negative impacts for only one of the species, whereas in mutualistic interactions, both partners are expected to suffer.