Ecosystems最新文献

{"title":"Identifying Headwater Streams across the Conterminous United States.","authors":"Charles R Lane, Ellen D'Amico, Jay R Christensen, Heather E Golden, Frederick Y Cheng, John C Hammond, Admin Husic, Kristin L Jaeger, C Nathan Jones, Christa A Kelleher, Li Li, D Tyler Mahoney, Hilary K McMillan, Adam N Price, Roy Sando, Catalina Segura, Erin C Seybold, Adam S Ward, Margaret Zimmer","doi":"10.1007/s10021-025-01041-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-025-01041-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Headwater streams play critical roles in hydrologic and biogeochemical processes and functions, yet their spatial distribution and land cover context remain poorly understood at continental scales, and no dedicated geospatial dataset exists. Building from a high-resolution conterminous United States (CONUS) hydrography network dataset, we quantified the spatial extent, density, and upstream catchment characteristics of headwater stream segments across the CONUS. We identified approximately 8.4 million kilometers of headwater streams, finding that 77% of the total stream network consists of headwaters, nearly double the total length represented in prior estimates. Stream density varied fivefold across regions, from < 1 km·km^-2 in arid basins to > 5 km·km^-2 in humid, forested areas. Over 73% of the CONUS landmass drains from headwater streams. The majority of headwater stream length occurred in forested and cultivated catchments across the CONUS, while substantial regional differences were evident for headwater stream distribution in other land cover classes (for example, wetlands, urban areas, shrublands, and herbaceous-dominated catchments). The dedicated and novel geospatial dataset, HELiOS (HEadwater streams and Low-Order Systems) is introduced for management and research use. The HELiOS dataset provides the first continental-scale, high-resolution characterization of headwater streams, offering new insights and opportunities for hydrologic modeling, ecological assessments, and environmental policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13285214/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148307485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-Term Ecological Impacts of Norway Spruce Plantations on Biodiversity and Microhabitat Conditions.","authors":"Simone Balestra, Vanessa Manuzi, Erica Ceresa, Pietro Gatti, Reetta Aleksandra Pirttilahti, Jiri Hodecek, Thierry Adatte, Brahimsamba Bomou, Paolo Gabrieli, Stephanie Grand, Gianalberto Losapio","doi":"10.1007/s10021-026-01048-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-026-01048-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reforestation efforts have sought to counteract deforestation and to provide a nature-based solution against climate change. However, they often involve monoculture plantations of non-native species, which may have unintended ecological consequences. Yet, the long-term ecological impacts of planting trees have been poorly estimated. Leveraging historical reforestation conducted in northern Italy during the 1930s by the fascist regime, we assessed the long-term impacts of Norway spruce (<i>Picea abies</i>) monoculture plantations on biodiversity of plants and soil fauna along with soil properties. We found that plant diversity in tree plantations was 50.3% lower than in native forests and 74.5% lower than in grasslands. Ecological indicator values for temperature and light were reduced in tree plantations. Additionally, functional evenness was reduced by 30% in spruce plantations, suggesting lower ecological stability. In tree plantations, organic carbon content was 25% higher due to litter deposition and slower decomposition rates. Soil fauna diversity was marginally less affected, suggesting a faster recovery over the last one-hundred years of arthropods as compared to plants. These findings highlight the need for monitoring reforestation interventions, suggesting strategies that incorporate diverse tree species rather than planting tree monoculture to support functionally and resilient ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 2","pages":"34"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13035640/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147590768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Network-Scale Patterns and Drivers of Microcystins in a Heavily Impacted Watershed.","authors":"Jessica Lerminiaux, Kerri Finlay, Peter R Leavitt, Samuel G Woodman, Matthew J Bogard","doi":"10.1007/s10021-026-01059-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-026-01059-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The most abundant and problematic of the cyanobacterial toxins, microcystins (MCs), degrade water quality, are lethal to livestock at high concentrations, and target the liver in humans. Most research has focused on lakes and reservoirs, while less is known about MCs in rivers, and few studies have integrated toxin threats across entire drainage networks. Here, we quantified landscape patterns of MCs and phytoplankton abundance in one of Canada's most heavily impacted watersheds. This catchment exhibits intensive agriculture and livestock production, with runoff controlled through a hydrologically modified network of regulated rivers, storage reservoirs, and a natural wetland used for slaughterhouse effluent treatment. While the headwater wetland complex exhibited greatly elevated concentrations of MCs (> 300 µg L^-1), there was little evidence of MCs export to the river drainage network in years with either good or poor hydrological connectivity. Generalized linear models showed that wetland MC concentrations scaled positively with phytoplankton abundance, nitrogen concentrations, salinity, and water temperature. In contrast, MC concentrations in rivers correlated with sampling month and only weakly with salinity, with no apparent connection to river flows. Correlation of MCs with cyanobacteria-specific pigment concentrations was weaker than that for total phytoplankton, suggesting knowledge of cyanobacterial community biomass added little to the prediction of toxin patterns. A continental meta-analysis showed that MC concentrations in the effluent-receiving wetland were high but not anomalous for lentic ecosystems, whereas rivers were greatly understudied (< 1% of total observations). Our findings underscore the distinct environmental controls on MCs in lentic versus lotic ecosystems and emphasize the need for habitat-specific management strategies.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-026-01059-x.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 3","pages":"37"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13095944/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147765810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Riparian Forests and Macroinvertebrates Support Multiple Ecosystem Processes Across Temperate and Tropical Streams.","authors":"Rebecca Oester, Paula M de Omena, Larissa Corteletti da Costa, Marcelo S Moretti, Florian Altermatt, Andreas Bruder","doi":"10.1007/s10021-025-01024-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-025-01024-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ecosystems are interconnected, and ecological processes frequently transcend the physical boundaries that define them. Fluxes of energy, matter, and organisms not only form important ecosystem processes within but also between ecosystems. However, the role of biological drivers in simultaneously supporting multiple ecosystem processes at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (that is, aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem processes) remains poorly understood, both locally and across regions. To assess the relative importance of riparian forests, detritus consumers and leaf litter mixing on different ecosystem processes of freshwater detrital food webs, we used leaf litter bags to subsidise local terrestrial leaf litter to forested and non-forested headwater stream sites in a temperate and tropical region. We also manipulated macroinvertebrate access and the composition of leaf litter mixtures. We measured three key aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem processes: biomass accrual of aquatic fungi, nitrogen loss, and decomposition rates of local leaf litter. Across both temperate and tropical streams, ecosystem multifunctionality, that is, the simultaneous sustaining of these processes, was positively associated with macroinvertebrates and riparian forests but not with leaf litter mixing. Especially leaf litter nitrogen loss and decomposition rates were consistently higher when macroinvertebrates had access across all leaf litter species. Decomposition rates were also positively associated with the other ecosystem processes. These findings highlight consistent, cross-regional effects of riparian forests and macroinvertebrate detritivores on freshwater detrital food webs. In a rapidly changing world, understanding ecosystem processes in headwater streams demands a holistic view that transcends ecosystem borders and incorporates cross-ecosystem interactions.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-025-01024-0.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 1","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12602634/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145502696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The \"Too-Few Elephant Problem\": Quantitative Analysis of Historical Elephant Tree-Toppling Rates Across Africa.","authors":"Sally Archibald, Anya P Courtenay, Fezile Mtsetfwa, Domingos Fortunato P F da Silva, Katherine Bunney, Robert Guldemond, Penny Mograbi, Caitlin Ransom, Casey M Ryan, Norman Owen-Smith","doi":"10.1007/s10021-026-01089-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-026-01089-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Elephants were a major driver of tree stem mortality in Africa, but their impacts are now spatially constrained and they no longer topple trees across the continent. Thus, most African landscapes lack a key ecological agent that helped maintain diversity and functioning. Even ecologists living in Africa fail to anticipate the rampant destruction of trees that can occur when elephants live in and move through landscapes. If we can build in a consensus on the degree of above-ground tree turnover that is inherent in different contexts, it would inform restoration projects and ecological definitions of degradation. We collated empirical data on treefall in ecosystems with and without elephants and predicted past tree loss spatially. The metrics used (%trees or #trees ha^-1) reveal assumptions about the processes controlling elephant damage. On average elephants knock down 5.4 [IQR 3.0-8.3] % of the trees in an ecosystem per annum. Mapping this into places that no longer contain elephants reveals the above-ground biomass turnover that would have been the norm for millennia before elephants were widely exterminated. On average, this is ~ 1/3 of woody biomass production but at a local scale it can often exceed production. There is an urgent need for better theory on elephant tree interactions, and restoration projects should embrace the rapid turnover dynamics these ecosystems evolved with.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-026-01089-5.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 5","pages":"79"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13493457/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148789385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Topography is a Major Determinant of Forest-Savanna Distributions in Mosaic Landscapes in Central Africa.","authors":"Aart Zwaan, Arie Staal, Mariska Te Beest, Max Rietkerk","doi":"10.1007/s10021-026-01070-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-026-01070-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Forests and savannas frequently co-occur as patches within tropical landscape mosaics, yet the mechanisms controlling their spatial configuration remain unclear. The presence of both vegetation states under similar climatic conditions is often attributed to fire-vegetation feedbacks, but could also reflect variation in overlooked external drivers. In Central Africa, forest-savanna mosaics become more common with increasing topographic roughness, but how well topographic heterogeneity explains the forest-savanna configuration within mosaic landscapes is unknown. Here we address this question and examine the role of individual topographic variables that may influence tree cover by, for instance, changing water availability and fire spread. We identify mosaic landscapes from remotely sensed tree cover data and derive topographic variables from a digital elevation model. We use these variables to develop machine learning algorithms predicting vegetation state within mosaic landscapes. Models achieved an average prediction accuracy of 0.75, with local elevation (relative to the surrounding 500 m or 5000 m) emerging as the strongest predictor of vegetation state. Both model accuracy and the role of topographic predictors varied strongly among landscapes, reflecting the diverse pathways by which topography can influence tree cover. Overall, our findings indicate that topographic heterogeneity is a major driver of forest-savanna mosaics in Central Africa. Mosaic landscapes are more deterministic than previously assumed, suggesting that their response to disturbances and climate change will be spatially heterogeneous, thereby reducing the likelihood of abrupt large-scale shifts between forest and savanna states.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-026-01070-2.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 3","pages":"51"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13216132/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148137054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synthesizing Spectral and Field Observations of Post-fire Conifer Recovery in Dry Conifer Forests.","authors":"Sarah M Smith-Tripp, Nicholas C Coops, Joe Meyer, Joanne C White, Sarah Gergel, Jodi Axelson, Dominik Roeser","doi":"10.1007/s10021-025-01029-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-025-01029-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The coniferous forests of the Western Cordillera are particularly affected by recent increases in wildfire extent and severity. After fire, conifer establishment and growth rates are influenced by a wide range of ecological drivers. Understanding the relative influence of ecological drivers on conifer recovery is crucial when modeling landscape dynamics. Past research has examined a wide variety of ecological drivers; however, syntheses of these drivers are rare. This systematic review focuses on forest recovery pathways, which have distinct variability in spatial and temporal measures of conifer establishment and growth. From studies examined, we extracted whether the study identified a recovery pathway and whether field or satellite spectral methods were used. Spectral methods were the most common method to determine the 84 extracted pathways. Among pathways identified, conifer self-replacement was the most common, but the second most common was state change, wherein the forest transitions in landcover type. We also investigated how recovery varied relative to different ecological drivers. Among the > 1000 drivers considered, pre-fire composition and post-fire moisture had consistent positive associations with all recovery metrics, while the association with other drivers varied by metric (stem density versus composition) and/or method (field versus spectral). Our review outlines key gaps for future research, including (1) the accuracy of spectral monitoring to capture structural growth trends, such as stem densities over time, and (2) how the effects of ecological drivers vary across scales, such as post-fire shrub cover at local versus landscape levels. Overall, fusing spectral and field data across spatiotemporal scales improves our understanding of post-wildfire recovery and dynamics, as well as our ability to anticipate the impacts of changing climate and wildfire conditions on recovering forests.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-025-01029-9.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 1","pages":"11"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12685996/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145721828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drivers and Mechanisms of Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Secondary Tropical Forests.","authors":"Tomonari Matsuo, Lucy Amissah, Masha T van der Sande, Fons van der Plas, Jazz Kok, Salim Mohammed Abdul, Lucas Chojnacki, Tijs Kuzee, Lhouyangdar Khulpu, Lourens Poorter","doi":"10.1007/s10021-026-01047-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-026-01047-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tropical forests provide vital ecosystem functions and services, yet global change is intensifying disturbance regimes and expanding the extent of young secondary forests. The question is to what extent these young forests recover ecosystem multifunctionality and under which conditions recovery proceeds faster. Here, we analyze the drivers and mechanisms that shape a comprehensive set of 16 ecosystem functions related to carbon, water, and nutrient cycling. We established plots in 36 young secondary forest stands (2.3-3.6 years since agricultural abandonment) in dry and wet regions in Ghana. In each plot, we measured eight forest attributes related to structure, diversity, and functional composition, six soil physical and chemical properties, and quantified 16 ecosystem functions to test how environmental conditions and forest attributes shape ecosystem functioning using structural equation modeling. Climatic wetness and soil conditions most strongly influenced ecosystem functions (9 functions each), followed by structure (8), diversity (5), and functional composition (4). The relative importance of these drivers and mechanisms varied across cycles: The carbon cycle was most influenced by forest attributes, whereas the water and nutrient cycles were primarily shaped by environmental conditions, with forest structure additionally shaping nutrient cycling. Hence, in early successional ecosystems, ecosystem multifunctionality is more strongly shaped by environmental conditions and vegetation quantity than by biodiversity, and different conditions are needed for the recovery of different cycles. When previous land use intensity has been low, forest recovery can proceed fast, and natural regeneration offers a scalable, low-cost opportunity for restoring multifunctionality, especially in wet tropical forests.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-026-01047-1.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"29 2","pages":"28"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12913265/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146225917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping the Spatial Heterogeneity of Watershed Ecosystems and Water Quality in Rainforest Fjordlands.","authors":"Ian J W Giesbrecht, Ken P Lertzman, Suzanne E Tank, G W Frazer, Kyra A St Pierre, Santiago Gonzalez Arriola, Isabelle Desmarais, Emily Haughton","doi":"10.1007/s10021-025-00964-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-025-00964-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Small coastal watersheds (< 10,000 km²) can play a large role in forming biogeochemical linkages between land and sea, yet the spatial heterogeneity of small watershed ecosystems is poorly understood due to sparse observations in many regions. In this study, we examined the spatial heterogeneity of water quality exported from diverse watersheds in two rainforest fjordland complexes. Samples were collected about monthly for a year from the outlets of 56 watersheds spanning from high mountains to low islands. Many (20) water quality properties varied significantly across six previously established watershed types defined by 12 easily computed geospatial variables. For example, organic matter concentrations ranged from very low in a Glacierized Mountains watershed type (1.2 ± 0.1 mg L^-1 DOC; 28.5 ± 4.6 µg L^-1 DON) to very high (15.1 ± 1.0 mg L^-1 DOC; 215.6 ± 20.4 µg L^-1 DON) in a Rain Lowlands type. Along this gradient, the dominant form of dissolved nitrogen switched from inorganic to organic and the dominant form of phosphorous switched from particulate to dissolved. Watershed type alone explained 67% of the variance in the first principal component of water quality (PC1) representing 20 water properties. Although underlying causes were likely complex, a great deal of spatial variation in water quality (for example, 91% of PC1) was predicted by simple measures of topography and climate (for example, elevation and mean annual precipitation). The physiographic structure of the coastal land mass appears to enable a complex mosaic of watershed ecosystems, which may affect meta-ecosystem function at the coastal margin.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-025-00964-x.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"28 2","pages":"25"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11958468/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143771430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linking Fire, Food Webs, and Fish in Stream Ecosystems.","authors":"David A Roon, J Ryan Bellmore, Joseph R Benjamin, François-Nicolas Robinne, Rebecca L Flitcroft, Jana E Compton, Joseph L Ebersole, Jason B Dunham, Kevin D Bladon","doi":"10.1007/s10021-024-00955-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10021-024-00955-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As wildfire regimes shift, resource managers are concerned about potential threats to aquatic ecosystems and the species they support, especially fishes. However, predicting fish responses can be challenging because wildfires affect aquatic ecosystems via multiple pathways. Application of whole-ecosystem approaches, such as food web modeling, can act as heuristic tools that offer valuable insights that account for these different mechanisms. We applied a dynamic food web simulation model that mechanistically linked stream trophic dynamics to the myriad effects that wildfires can have on aquatic and riparian ecosystems at a local stream reach-scale. We simulated how wildfires of different severity may influence short- (months to years) and long-term (years to decades) periphyton, aquatic invertebrate, and fish biomass dynamics in forested headwater streams of the western Pacific Northwest (USA). In many cases, wildfire increased modeled periphyton, invertebrate, and fish biomass over both short- and long-time periods. However, modeled responses varied extensively in their direction (that is, positive or negative), magnitude, and duration depending on fire severity, time since fire, and trophic level. The shapes of these response trajectories were especially sensitive to predicted wildfire effects on water temperature, canopy cover, riparian shading, and instream turbidity. Model simulations suggest a single fire could result in a wide range of aquatic ecosystem responses, especially in watersheds with mixed burn severity. Our analysis highlights the utility of whole-ecosystem approaches, like food web modeling, as heuristic tools for improving our understanding of the mechanisms linking fire, food webs, and fish and for identifying contexts where fires could have deleterious impacts on fishes.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-024-00955-4.</p>","PeriodicalId":11406,"journal":{"name":"Ecosystems","volume":"28 1","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11698785/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142930958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}