Cascading effects of algal warming in a freshwater community

1. Much of our research on the effects of ongoing climate warming on ecological communities is focused on how temperature affects resource quantity. However, resource quality is also affected by warming, and changes in resource quality can have meaningful effects on the productivity of higher trophic levels.

2. Aquatic communities in particular are likely to affected by temperature-mediated shifts in resource quality because the nutritional value of algae is highly sensitive to temperature. For example, the production of healthful omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) by algae often decreases with warming.

3. Documented decreases in algal PUFAs with warming have led to the hypothesis that global warming should lead to an overall decrease in productivity in aquatic communities. However, this hypothesis: a) potentially oversimplifies the relationship between algal PUFAs and temperature, and b) assumes that the nutritional requirements of consumers are not affected by temper...