Ecological Networks as a Framework for Understanding and Predicting Contaminant Movement Across the Land-Water Interface
Models of interaction networks among species (i.e., network models) can be used to predict behavior of complex adaptive systems, such as ecosystems at the land-water interface. As theoretical and empirical understanding of ecological networks continues to
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uction Ecological networks are the interactions that occur among species in a community. Within the context of traditional food webs, these networks commonly include competition and predation (Ings et al. 2009). However, host-parasitoid, mutualistic, parasitic, disease, dispersal or migration, and pollinator interactions have also received increasing recognition as important types of interactions comprising ecological networks (Ings et al. 2009; van Veen et al. 2006; Huxham et al. 1996; Jordano 2016; Sazatornil et al. 2016). The interactions that form ecological networks have important implications for community stability, structure, and persistence (Yen et al. 2016; Krause et al. 2003; Stouffer and Bascompte 2011; Fortuna and Bascompte 2006) and have played an important role in the development of ecological theory (Elton 1927; May 1972). Here, we propose that models of ecological networks functioning at the land-water interface may serve as valuable tools for understanding and predicting the biologically mediated movement of contaminants between aquatic and terrestrial systems (Sullivan and Manning 2019). Scientists have long recognized that streams and rivers are embedded within, and highly influenced by, their surrounding landscapes (Hynes 1975). Today, we know that aquatic ecosystems and their adjacent riparian zones are inextricably linked through exchanges of water, sediment, organic material, nutrients, contaminants, and organisms (Polis et al. 2004; Junk et al. 1989; Walters et al. 2008). Species S. M. P. Sullivan (*) Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, School of Environment and Natural Resources, Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. A. Cristol Department of Biology, William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. M. Kraus et al. (eds.), Contaminants and Ecological Subsidies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49480-3_13
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interactions at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial systems form ecological networks (sensu Naiman and Décamps 1997) that can link these ecosystems over space and time and act as a critical mechanism in the cross-boundary transfer of contaminants. Models of these networks (Fig. 1) can help predict how ecosystems respond to change by improving understanding and quantifying the architecture of relationships among species (Bascompte 2010). Thus, elucidating the role of ecological networks in regulating the rate, timing, and magnitude of cross-boundary biological interactions will allow better prediction and risk assessment in cases where contaminants may move across ecotones.
Fig. 1 Stylized image representing the ecological network (connected circles and lines) at an aquatic-terrestrial interface (area in shaded blue rectangle), found at the boundary between land and water. The brown line is the riverbank. Within the network model, circles represent nodes (e.g., species) and l
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