Global change, freshwater snails and ecosystem effects: Will smaller invasive species dominate?
We aim to understand how climate warming, nutrient enrichment and species traits such as body size and invasive status influence freshwater snails and their impact on community dynamics and ecosystem functioning, including cross-ecosystem linkages and nutrient cycling.
Freshwater ecosystems face multifarious environmental change including climate warming, nutrient enrichment and species invasions. Recent theories and empirical data suggest that warming and nutrient enrichment favour smaller-bodied invasive species, which may outcompete native species and alter community structure and ecosystem functioning. However, detailed evidence is lacking on how realistic, seasonally resolved climate warming scenarios impact interspecific competition among freshwater ectotherms and modulate their effects on ecosystem functioning along productivity gradients. To address this knowledge gap, we will combine laboratory and outdoor experiments with numerical simulations to examine how warming and nutrient enrichment affect freshwater snails, a widespread group of benthic grazers that play an important role in nutrient cycling and regulation of primary production in freshwater habitats. We will test which species dominate in competitive interactions under warming and nutrient enrichment, and quantify their impacts on cross-ecosystem linkages and nutrient cycling.
