Seasonal interactions and rewiring in freshwater stream fish networks
Chris Brimacombe1,*, Korryn
Bodner1,2,3 and Marie-Josée
Fortin1,4
1Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of
Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3B2
2Department of Biological Sciences, University of
Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M1C
1A4
3K.Bodner@mail.utoronto.ca
4MarieJosee.Fortin@utoronto.ca
*Corresponding author:
Chris.Brimacombe@mail.utoronto.ca
Type of article: Letters
Keywords: Beta-diversity, EMtree approach, interaction
networks, interaction rewiring, joint species distribution model, NEON
data, network theory, Poisson log-normal models, seasonality
Author’s contributions: CB and KB proposed the concept
for the paper. CB obtained the data and CB and KB developed the methods
and results. CB and KB wrote the initial manuscript. MJF contributed to
the concept of the paper. All authors contributed to further editing of
the manuscript. CB was supported by an NSERC CGSM scholarship. MJF was
supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant and an NSERC CRC.
Conflict of interest: None.
Data Accessibility: Should the manuscript be accepted,
data supporting the results will be archived in Dryad.
Short running title: Seasonal interactions and rewiring.
Number of words in abstract: 153, Number
of words in manuscript: 5001, Number of references:58, Number of figures, and tables: 6
Abstract: Despite evidence that seasonal variation may
lead to the persistence of competing species, studies on the effect of
seasonality on community network structures are limited. Furthermore,
identifying whether seasonal network changes are the result of species
turnover or rewiring (rearrangement of interactions among species), also
remains understudied. Here, we investigate seasonal network changes in a
stream fish community across Fall and Spring data. We find strong
evidence that seasonality influences species interactions, particularly
through rewiring. Moreover, we find that a species’ number of rewiring
interactions was best explained by its status as a
piscivore/non-piscivore and its maximum length. Overall, we argue that
rewiring may be a dominant process in communities experiencing seasonal
environments and that traits linked to trophic-level may identify
species contributing most to rewiring. As networks dominated by rewiring
may be more robust, understanding the causes of changes in species
interactions can help determine when communities may persist given a
disturbance.