Fig. 2: Effect of metabolic plasticity on the predicted impact of global warming on ecosystem-wide energy fluxes.

a Visualisation of changes in modelled energy fluxes through a food web in the study system after a simulated +2 °C of warming. Thicker lines (trophic links) between species populations (nodes) indicate a greater predicted increase in energy flux using the model with metabolic plasticity compared to the one without. b Using empirical data from our 14 study sites, the model with metabolic plasticity predicts a significantly greater increase in total energy flux through the networks following +2 °C of warming than the model without metabolic plasticity. This increase is driven by (c) flux to herbivores, with no significant contributions of increasing flux to (d) detritivores or (e) predators. Tukey box and whisker plots are shown, with the thick black line as the median, limits as the 1st and 3rd quartiles, whiskers as 1.5 times the interquartile range, and outliers as individual points. One-sided paired Wilcoxon tests were performed on the data in panels (b–e); n = 14 for every individual boxplot; **p ≤ 0.01; ns no significant difference. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.