New publications
NEW STUDY: GLOBAL FOOD PRODUCTION IS SHRINKING ANIMALS AND PLANTS
Society has long prioritized maximizing food production, which has transformed ecosystems by reducing species diversity and body size, leading to more uniform yet highly productive environments. The trade-off between productivity and stability is often overlooked in discussions about global food security, however, especially when it comes to the weakened stability of these ecosystems. By reviewing key studies, this recent study (carried out with the assistance of CEM Director Dr. Kevin McCann) highlights this trade-off and emphasizes the need to consider it in sustainable food system management. This research shows how human activities have rewired food webs thus destabilizing them, and suggests that promoting landscape diversity and preserving key food web structures are essential for sustainable food production.
For more information, see the research article at DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107916
Media COVERAGE
Great lakes Basin and Inland Lakes
Warne, C., Guzzo, M. M., Cazelles, K., Chu, C., Rooney, N., & McCann, K. S. (2023). Thermal tolerance and habitat preferences mediate how freshwater fish body sizes respond to warming. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 81(4): 488-496.*
Gutgesell, M., McMeans, B.C., Guzzo, M.M., de Groot, V., Fisk, A.T., Johnson, T.B. and McCann, K.S., (2022). Subsidy accessibility drives asymmetric food web responses. Ecology, 103(12), p.e3817.
O'Connor, R.F., McMeans, B.C., Rooney, N., Guzzo, M.M., Young, J.D. and McCann, K.S., (2022). Species portfolio effects dominate seasonal zooplankton stabilization within a large temperate lake. Ecology, pp.e3889-e3889.
Champagne, E.J., Guzzo, M.M., Gutgesell, M.K. and McCann, K.S., (2022). Riparian buffers maintain aquatic trophic structure in agricultural landscapes. Biology Letters, 18(3), pp.20210598-20210598.
Warne, C.P., McCann, K.S., Rooney, N., Cazelles, K. and Guzzo, M.M., (2020). Geography and Morphology Affect the Ice Duration Dynamics of Northern Hemisphere Lakes Worldwide. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(12), p.e87953.
* selected as Editor’s Choice
Global Sustainability
Donohue, I., Coscieme, L., Gellner, G., Yang, Q., Jackson, A. L., Kubiszewski, I., Costanza, R., & McCann, K. S. (2023). Accelerated economic recovery in countries powered by renewables. Ecological Economics, 212, 107916.
Moore, N.A., Morales-Castilla, I., Hargreaves, A.L. et al. (2023). Temperate species underfill their tropical thermal potentials on land. Nat Ecol Evol.
Bieg, Carling, Timothy J. Bartley, Kevin S. McCann, and Robert H. Hanner. (2022). Replicating nature's fabric: High information markets and the sustainability of global seafood. Food Webs 32: e00239.
Bieg, C., Vallès, H., Tewfik, A., Lapointe, B. & Mccann, K. (2022). Towards a multi-stressor theory for coral reefs in a changing world. 10.1101/2022.03.22.485402.
Cazelles, K., Zemlak, T.S., Gutgesell, M., Myles-Gonzalez, E., Hanner, R. and Shear McCann, K., (2021). Spatial fingerprinting: horizontal fusion of multi-dimensional bio-tracers as solution to global food provenance problems. Foods, 10(4), p.717.
Theory, Models & Management Tools
Hale, K. R. S., Curlis, J. D., Auteri, G. G., Bishop, S., French, R. L. K., Jones, L. E., Mills, K. L., Scholtens, B. G., Simons, M., Thompson, C., Tourville, J., & Valdovinos, F. S. (2024). A highly resolved network reveals the role of terrestrial herbivory in structuring aboveground food webs. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 379 (1909).
Sunday, J.M., Bernhardt, J.R., Harley, C.D.G. & O’Connor, M.I. (2023). Temperature dependence of competitive ability is cold-shifted compared to that of growth rate in marine phytoplankton. Ecology Letters, 00, 1–12.
Ward, C. A., Tunney, T. D., & McCann, K. S. (2023). Managing aquatic habitat structure for resilient trophic interactions. Ecological Applications, 10.1002/eap.2814.
Donohue, I., Coscieme, L., Gellner, G., Yang, Q., Jackson, A.L., Kubiszewski, I., Costanza, R., and McCann, K.S. (2023). Accelerated economic recovery in countries powered by renewables. Ecological Economics, 212, 107916.
Säterberg, T. and McCann, K., (2021). Detecting alternative attractors in ecosystem dynamics. Communications biology, 4(1), p.975.
McCann, K.S., Cazelles, K., Macdougall, A.S., Fussmann, G.F., Bieg, C., Cristescu, M., Fryxell, J.M., Gellner, G., Lapointe, B. and Gonzalez, A., (2021). Landscape modification and nutrient-driven instability at a distance. Ecology Letters, 24, pp.398-414.
McMeans, B.C., McCann, K.S., Guzzo, M.M., Bartley, T.J., Bieg, C., Blanchfield, P.J., Fernandes, T., Giacomini, H.C., Middel, T., Rennie, M.D. and Ridgway, M.S., (2020). Winter in water: differential responses and the maintenance of biodiversity. Ecology Letters, 23(6), pp.922-938.