Data and code for: Recently established predators rewire food webs simplified by extinction

  • Eamonn Wooster (Creator)
  • Owen S. Middleton (Creator)
  • Arian Wallach (Creator)
  • Daniel Ramp (Creator)
  • Sanisidro Oscar (Creator)
  • Valerie Harris (Creator)
  • John Rowan (Creator)
  • Simon Schowanek (Creator)
  • Chris Gordon (Creator)
  • Jens-Christian Svenning (Creator)
  • Matt Davis (Creator)
  • Jorn Scharlemann (Creator)
  • Dale Nimmo (Creator)
  • Erick Lundgren (Creator)
  • Christopher J Sandom (Creator)

Dataset

Description of Data

Since prehistory, humans have altered the composition of ecosystems by causing extinctions and introducing species. However, our understanding of how waves of species extinctions and introductions influence the structure and function of ecological networks through time remains piecemeal. Here, focusing on Australia, which has experienced many extinctions and introductions since the Late Pleistocene, we compared the functional trait composition of Late Pleistocene (130,00–115,000 years before present [ybp]), Holocene (11,700–3,000 ybp), and current Australian mammalian predator assemblages (≥70% vertebrate meat consumption; ≥1 kg adult body mass). We then constructed food webs for each period based on estimated prey body mass preferences. We found that introduced predators are functionally distinct from extinct Australian predators, but they rewire food webs toward a state that closely resembles the Late Pleistocene, prior to the megafauna extinctions. Both Late Pleistocene and current-day food webs consist of an apex predator and three smaller predators. This leads to food web networks with a similar total number of links, link densities, and compartmentalizations. However, this similarity depends on the presence of dingoes: in their absence, food webs become simplified and reminiscent of those following the Late Pleistocene extinctions. Our results suggest that recently established predators, even those implicated in species extinctions and declines, can restore complexity to food webs simplified by extinction.
Date made available13 Sept 2024
PublisherZenodo
Date of data production13 Sept 2024
Geographical coverageAustralia

Cite this