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Global Changes Jeopardize the Trophic Carrying Capacity and Functioning of Estuarine Ecosystems

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Abstract

At the interface between terrestrial and marine biomes, estuaries display high ecological productivity and provide goods and services to humans. Associated with many ecological functions, they are nursery, refuge, and growing areas for many species fish. These ecological functions and services depend on both their ecological production and trophic carrying capacity and the durability of food web functioning. These transitional key habitats undergo both strong anthropogenic pressures and climatic influences that impact the structure and dynamics of estuarine biodiversity. In this context, we explore, here, three decades of the Gironde estuary ecosystem history to detect the food web’s response to global changes-induced effect on biodiversity. At least two Ecological Abrupt Shifts associated with deep modifications in the biodiversity at most trophic levels have been documented for this particular ecosystem. Three food web models were thus calibrated, one for each of the three periods discriminated by the two shifts that occurred at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 2000s. Results highlighted that the ecotrophic efficiency estimate for subtidal macrofauna and shrimps reached the maximum possible values during the last period. This could mean that the Gironde estuary fully reached its trophic carrying capacity due to a food limitation especially for benthos demersal fish. We also observed a significant decrease in some food web indicators (such as Average Mutual Information, System Omnivory Index, and Average Path Length) usually associated with ecosystem stress, suggesting a significant impact of global change on the Gironde estuary ecosystem health and questioning the sustainability of the ecological functions associated with this ecosystem.

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Acknowledgements

Particular thanks are due to Hugues Blanchet, Raphael Musseau, and the ‘Biosphère environnement’ team for their benthos and bird data and highly relevant comments. We thank all TRANSECT, STURAT, SOMLIT, and Blayais team members, technicians, researchers, captains, and crews, who have contributed to samplings since 1979. Data since 1997 can be downloaded at: http://somlit.epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr/fr. These programmes were supported by Electricité de France (EDF), Irstea, Ifremer, and the CNRS.

Funding

This work was supported by the French Ministry in charge of Environment and the Regional Council of Aquitaine (CPER programme) as a part of the LITEAU-TRAJEST Project. This study has been partly carried out with financial support from the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the frame of the Investments for the future Programme, within the Cluster of Excellence COTE (ANR-10-LABX-45).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Irstea, UR EABX, Aquatic Ecosystems and Global Changes, 50 Avenue de Verdun, 33612, Cestas, France

    Xavier Chevillot, Géraldine Lassalle, Gérard Castelnaud & Jérémy Lobry

  2. UMR BOREA (MNHN, UPMC CNRS-7208, IRD-207), Normandie Université UNICAEN, CS 14032, 14000, Caen, France

    Samuele Tecchio & Nathalie Niquil

  3. Fisheries Ecology and Modeling Department, IFREMER, 44311, Nantes Cedex 3, France

    Aurélie Chaalali

  4. EPOC, UMR 5805, Station Marine d’Arcachon, Université de Bordeaux, 2 Rue du Professeur Jolyet, 33120, Arcachon, France

    Jonathan Selleslagh, Valérie David, Guy Bachelet & Benoit Sautour

  5. CNRS, EPOC, UMR 5805, Station Marine d’Arcachon, 2 Rue du Professeur Jolyet, 33120, Arcachon, France

    Jonathan Selleslagh, Valérie David, Guy Bachelet & Benoit Sautour

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  1. Xavier Chevillot
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Correspondence to Xavier Chevillot.

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Authors’ contributions

XC, JL, GB, BS, and NN conceived of or designed the study; XC, JL, ST, AC, and NN performed the research; XC, JL, ST, AC, GC, GB, and NN analysed the data; XC, JL, ST, AC, GL, and NN contributed new methods or models; XC, ST, AC, JS, GL, GB, NN, BS, and JL wrote the paper.

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Chevillot, X., Tecchio, S., Chaalali, A. et al. Global Changes Jeopardize the Trophic Carrying Capacity and Functioning of Estuarine Ecosystems. Ecosystems 22, 473–495 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0282-9

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