What is the title of the paper? Phenological trends and trophic mismatch across multiple levels of a
North Sea pelagic food web
Who wrote the paper and where is it published? S. Burthe, F. Daunt, A. Butler, D.A. Elston, M.
Frederiksen, D. Johns, M. Newell, S.J. Thackeray and S. Wanless in Marine Ecology Progress Series.
What is this about? The paper explores the mismatch in predator/ prey relationships across 4
trophic levels of the North Sea food web.
Why is it important? There is growing evidence that the North Sea ecosystem is being affected by
shifts in temperature and anthropogenic pressures (such as overfishing). The paper supports this
theory and demonstrates that trophic mismatching is prevalent within the whole North Sea food
web.
Why does it matter? The paper suggests that ecosystem functioning may be disrupted. A prolonged
change in the trophic relationships of the North Sea food web is highly likely to have long term
effects on the abundance and distribution of a wide range of species, some of which have important
socio- economic links.
What does the paper tell us?
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The timing of predator and prey occurrences is highly important to the food web.
Failure of a predator to make use of the peak prey availability can lead to ‘trophic mismatch’
and can alter the food web structure and function.
The North Sea food web has a ‘wasp-waist’ structure, meaning that there is a higher species
richness in the upper (mammals and sea birds) and lower (zooplankton) trophic levels and a
lower species richness in the mid (sand eel) trophic position.
The North Sea has undergone changes in its hydro-biology in recent years, with an increase
in sea surface temperature (SST), an ecosystem regime shift, changes in plankton community
and changes in fish distribution.
There is no evidence of a strong predator/ prey relationship in the North Sea food web,
except for some seabird species that feed on sand eels. This supports the theory that
species across trophic levels in the North Sea may have been mismatched since the regime
shift in 1983.
Changes in seasonal abundance of species may be masking phonological mismatching in the
North Sea.
Sand eels are taking longer to mature and reach a sustainable size. This means that they are
of less nutritional value to their predators.
Predators may have a delayed response to changes in the prey species availability that
cannot be seen clearly in this study.
Despite the decline in the quality of the sand eel (smaller size and containing less energy to
the predator) the paper does not highlight any adverse effects of the breeding success of
any seabird species.
Future work needs to be done on the multiple life history feeding traits to better understand
how predators are responding to declines in the quality of their prey and whether the
mismatch is affecting the fitness of the individuals