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Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales / LUCIE THOMPSON

Swansea University Author: LUCIE THOMPSON

  • E-Thesis – open access under embargo until: 4th June 2027

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUThesis.69995

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities, such as deforestation, pollution, and climate change, are depleting natural resources and disrupting key ecosystem functions essential for life on Earth. Disturbances have myriads of implications for biodiversity including altering the balance of energy fluxes between specie...

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Published: Swansea University, Wales, UK 2025
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Lurgi, M.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69995
first_indexed 2025-07-17T14:22:34Z
last_indexed 2025-07-18T05:00:05Z
id cronfa69995
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2025-07-17T15:28:28.1643023 v2 69995 2025-07-17 Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales c5a61127d29e33ce9a24dab62ce0b864 LUCIE THOMPSON LUCIE THOMPSON true false 2025-07-17 Anthropogenic activities, such as deforestation, pollution, and climate change, are depleting natural resources and disrupting key ecosystem functions essential for life on Earth. Disturbances have myriads of implications for biodiversity including altering the balance of energy fluxes between species, via impacts on their ecological interactions. Disturbances on one species can ripple through the network of ecological interactions and affect species several “steps” away from the disturbed one. Similarly, connectivity corridors between habitat patches across landscapes link ecosystems together.So far, we know that trophic network topology varies along management intensity and productivity gradients and that this structure can modulate community stability in response to various disturbances. Furthermore, spatial considerations including the ability of species to disperse across landscape can stabilise community dynamics. Despite this knowledge, trophic interactions and spatial dynamics have stayed mostly confined to ecology and are not widely applied in conservation biology.This thesis seeks to address this gap and illustrate how trophic interactions and/or spatial dynamics in natural systems can inform conservation action. This research advances our knowledge on how species interaction networks, and particularly food webs, are being reshaped by anthropogenic disturbances, and explores the use of modelling tools to inform conservation.These cost-effective frameworks coupling trophic interactions and spatial dynamics offer new perspectives on how conservation actions can benefit communities. Notably, we illustrate how trophic interactions can play a role in modulating species’ sensitivity to disturbance. We find that large-bodied mobile consumers require significant energy which limits their ability to persist in degraded landscapes. We show that tools such as the maintenance of habitat heterogeneity can buffer against disturbances and that habitat restoration is an effective way of promoting recolonisation by extirpated species. In general, this research attempts to reframe the perspective from species-centred management to community-wide conservation, integrating considerations of habitat connectivity and quality. E-Thesis Swansea University, Wales, UK Food webs, disturbance, conservation, avian, biogeography, distribution 19 5 2025 2025-05-19 10.23889/SUThesis.69995 A selection of content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis to protect sensitive and personal information. COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Lurgi, M. Doctoral Ph.D 2025-07-17T15:28:28.1643023 2025-07-17T15:11:19.1560632 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences LUCIE THOMPSON 1 Under embargo Under embargo 2025-07-17T15:20:56.8906291 Output 10677527 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true 2027-06-04T00:00:00.0000000 Copyright: The author, Lucie Thompson, 2024 Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
spellingShingle Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
LUCIE THOMPSON
title_short Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
title_full Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
title_fullStr Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
title_full_unstemmed Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
title_sort Conservation and disturbance of complex food webs across spatial scales
author_id_str_mv c5a61127d29e33ce9a24dab62ce0b864
author_id_fullname_str_mv c5a61127d29e33ce9a24dab62ce0b864_***_LUCIE THOMPSON
author LUCIE THOMPSON
author2 LUCIE THOMPSON
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUThesis.69995
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 0
active_str 0
description Anthropogenic activities, such as deforestation, pollution, and climate change, are depleting natural resources and disrupting key ecosystem functions essential for life on Earth. Disturbances have myriads of implications for biodiversity including altering the balance of energy fluxes between species, via impacts on their ecological interactions. Disturbances on one species can ripple through the network of ecological interactions and affect species several “steps” away from the disturbed one. Similarly, connectivity corridors between habitat patches across landscapes link ecosystems together.So far, we know that trophic network topology varies along management intensity and productivity gradients and that this structure can modulate community stability in response to various disturbances. Furthermore, spatial considerations including the ability of species to disperse across landscape can stabilise community dynamics. Despite this knowledge, trophic interactions and spatial dynamics have stayed mostly confined to ecology and are not widely applied in conservation biology.This thesis seeks to address this gap and illustrate how trophic interactions and/or spatial dynamics in natural systems can inform conservation action. This research advances our knowledge on how species interaction networks, and particularly food webs, are being reshaped by anthropogenic disturbances, and explores the use of modelling tools to inform conservation.These cost-effective frameworks coupling trophic interactions and spatial dynamics offer new perspectives on how conservation actions can benefit communities. Notably, we illustrate how trophic interactions can play a role in modulating species’ sensitivity to disturbance. We find that large-bodied mobile consumers require significant energy which limits their ability to persist in degraded landscapes. We show that tools such as the maintenance of habitat heterogeneity can buffer against disturbances and that habitat restoration is an effective way of promoting recolonisation by extirpated species. In general, this research attempts to reframe the perspective from species-centred management to community-wide conservation, integrating considerations of habitat connectivity and quality.
published_date 2025-05-19T05:28:28Z
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score 11.089572

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