2017 ESA Annual Meeting (August 6 -- 11)

OOS 44 - Transcending Guilds: Mixotrophs and Omnivores As Regulators of Ecosystem Function

Thursday, August 10, 2017: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
D136, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Holly V. Moeller
Co-organizers:
Michael G. Neubert and Monica Granados
Moderator:
Matthew G.E. Mitchell
Trophic interactions are rarely linear and instead form a reticulate network of multiple interactions. Mixotrophs—species that combine phototrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms—and omnivores—organisms that feed across multiple trophic levels—are prolific in both marine and terrestrial ecological communities. Because their metabolic niches span ecological guilds and trophic levels, these organisms play an important role in modulating the flux of energy and materials through and across food webs. For example, planktonic mixotrophs short-circuit nutrient remineralization processes in the surface waters of lakes and oceans, enabling additional primary production that can support larger organisms and enhance carbon export. Omnivores, in addition to increasing food web stability through generalist feeding behavior, are often relatively large, motile organisms that can couple population dynamics across metacommunities by dispersing across larger spatial scales than other community members. Despite their importance, mixotrophs and omnivores have received relatively little theoretical and empirical attention, in part because tractability often necessitates simplifying assumptions about food web structure. However, recent advances in the study of these organisms are providing new opportunities for advances. This session brings together empiricists and theoreticians studying mixotrophy and omnivory using a variety of field settings, experimental systems, and mathematical models. Presented work will highlight how these guild- and space-spanning organisms modulate community structure and ecosystem function, and how understanding their ecological roles can help us predict and manage human-altered ecosystems.
1:30 PM
Predator novelty alters coexistence boundaries and modulates energy pathways in an intraguild predation system
Kurt E. Ingeman, Oregon State University; Mark Novak, Oregon State University; Mark A. Hixon, University of Hawai‘i
1:50 PM Cancelled
OOS 44-2
Non-metabolic scaling: Generalised consumer feeding beyond size and temperature (widthdrawn)
Danny Barrios-O'Neill, Queens University, Belfast
2:30 PM
The mixotrophic spectrum: Contrasting nutritional strategies in closely related marine chrysophytes
Susanne Wilken, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC); Alexandra Z. Worden, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
3:10 PM
3:20 PM
Acquired metabolism: An evolutionary pathway to mixotrophy?
Holly V. Moeller, University of California, Santa Barbara; Michael G. Neubert, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
3:40 PM
Temperature effects on omnivores: Consequences for community structure and dynamics
Priyanga Amarasekare, University of California, Los Angeles
4:00 PM
How interaction strengths in omnivory change under climate warming
Monica Granados, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, Universiy of Guelph; Kevin S. McCann, University of Guelph
4:20 PM
Local stability, regional asynchrony, and the persistence of complex spatial food webs
Sean M. Hayes, University of California Riverside; Kurt Anderson, University of California, Riverside
4:40 PM
Emergent food webs in a virtual ocean
Mick Follows, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ben Ward, University of Bristol; Stephanie Dutkiewicz, MIT; Oliver Jahn, MIT; Christopher N. Hill, MIT