Aquatic-Terrestrial Linkages in Food Web Dynamics

Aquatic‐terrestrial linkages encompass the bidirectional exchange of energy, nutrients and organisms between freshwater and adjacent terrestrial habitats. Emerging aquatic insects, drifted organic matter and dissolved nutrients subsidise riparian food webs, while terrestrial inputs of leaf litter, woody debris and allochthonous invertebrates influence stream community structure and function. These cross‐boundary fluxes shape consumer diets, mediate trophic cascades and drive elemental cycling, often with magnitudes comparable to in‐situ productivity. Variations in hydrology, landscape configuration and land use modulate the timing and magnitude of subsidies, with implications for species interactions, community resilience and ecosystem services. Climate‐driven shifts in phenology and alterations to flow regimes may decouple historical matches between resource pulses and consumer demand, while anthropogenic modifications of riparian zones can attenuate or amplify subsidy flows. Understanding these dynamic linkages at multiple spatial and temporal scales is essential for integrated management of freshwater and terrestrial systems, conservation of biodiversity and the prediction of ecosystem responses to global change.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have provided a quantitative global synthesis of cross‐ecosystem carbon flows, revealing that spatial subsidies span eight orders of magnitude and can rival local carbon fluxes in freshwater and benthic systems. This work highlights differential dependency on external inputs among ecosystem types, the vulnerability of community processes to disruption of subsidy pathways and the necessity of incorporating spatial perspectives into ecosystem functioning models.

Aquatic-Terrestrial Linkages in Food Web Dynamics publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in aquatic-terrestrial linkages in food web dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Allochthony: The use of energy or nutrients by consumers that originate outside their immediate ecosystem.

Meta‐ecosystem: A network of ecosystems linked by the movement of organisms, energy and materials across boundaries.

Spatial subsidy: A transfer of resources or organisms from one ecosystem to another that influences the recipient community.

Riparian zone: The interface area between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, often a hotspot for subsidy exchange.

References

1. Climate change is poised to alter mountain stream ecosystem processes via organismal phenological shifts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2024).
2. Global patterns of allochthony in stream–riparian meta‐ecosystems. Ecology Letters (2024).
3. Cross-ecosystem carbon flows connecting ecosystems worldwide. Nature Communications (2018).
4. Local and landscape drivers of aquatic‐to‐terrestrial subsidies in riparian ecosystems: a worldwide meta‐analysis. Ecosphere (2019).