Heat it up to slow it down: Individual energetics reveal how warming reduces stream decomposition

Abstract

Research Highlight: Réveillon, T., Rota, T., Chauvet, É., Lecerf, A., & Sentis, A. (2022). Energetic mismatch induced by warming decreases leaf litter decomposition by aquatic detritivores. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13710. Global change holds complex consequences for Earth's ecosystems, with global warming simultaneously affecting multiple aspects including individual physiology, population dynamics and ecosystem processes. In a recent study on stream decomposition under global warming, Réveillon, et al. (2022) combined individual-level laboratory assessments of metabolic rates and leaf-litter ingestion with experimentally parameterized consumer-resource models, designed to reveal how stream-detritivore populations respond to combined impacts of warming and declining body size. Their findings of reduced energetic efficiency, weakened detritivore populations and reduced decomposition in warmed streams expand our understanding of how global change mechanistically links changes from the individual to the ecosystem level.