---
_id: '12849'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Trophic interactions determine food web structure and influence biodiversity,
    community structure, ecosystem functioning, and food web responses to global change.
    These interactions are highly flexible, changing on temporal scales from diurnal
    to evolutionary times due to phenotypic plasticity, rapid evolution and species
    sorting. Small-scale experimental and theoretical studies of plankton interactions
    have demonstrated a high relevance of this flexibility for community dynamics
    and ecosystem processes in small, simplified communities. However, the extent
    to which this flexibility affects larger-scale systems, for example, global ocean
    dynamics and their responses to global change, is still poorly understood. Differences
    in methodology, focus and terminology between research disciplines limit our ability
    to project established effects of flexible trophic interactions onto larger spatial
    and temporal scales. We propose to bridge this gap with a general framework for
    upscaling knowledge from small-scale research to large-scale models. Building
    on examples from plankton communities, we use this framework to show how mechanisms
    demonstrated in small-scale studies can be linked to ecosystem functions relevant
    at large scales. We argue for incorporating flexibility in large-scale process-based
    models to improve their realism and predictive power, and discuss challenges and
    ways forward for achieving this. Finally, we suggest several concrete ways for
    upscaling small-scale studies to make their findings more relevant for large-scale
    research, to close existing knowledge gaps and to improve our understanding of
    how flexible trophic interactions affect dynamics and processes across scales.
article_number: '23'
author:
- first_name: Ellen
  full_name: van Velzen, Ellen
  last_name: van Velzen
- first_name: Sabine
  full_name: Wollrab, Sabine
  last_name: Wollrab
- first_name: Onur
  full_name: Kerimoglu, Onur
  last_name: Kerimoglu
- first_name: Ursula
  full_name: Gaedke, Ursula
  last_name: Gaedke
- first_name: Hans-Peter
  full_name: Grossart, Hans-Peter
  last_name: Grossart
- first_name: Minoru
  full_name: Kasada, Minoru
  last_name: Kasada
- first_name: Helena C. L.
  full_name: Klip, Helena C. L.
  last_name: Klip
- first_name: Stefanie
  full_name: Moorthi, Stefanie
  last_name: Moorthi
- first_name: Tom
  full_name: Shatwell, Tom
  id: '86424'
  last_name: Shatwell
  orcid: 0000-0002-4520-7916
- first_name: Patch
  full_name: Thongthaisong, Patch
  last_name: Thongthaisong
- first_name: A. E.
  full_name: Friederike Prowe, A. E.
  last_name: Friederike Prowe
citation:
  ama: 'van Velzen E, Wollrab S, Kerimoglu O, et al. Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web
    Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches. <i>Ecosystems</i>. 2025;28(2). doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7">10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7</a>'
  apa: 'van Velzen, E., Wollrab, S., Kerimoglu, O., Gaedke, U., Grossart, H.-P., Kasada,
    M., Klip, H. C. L., Moorthi, S., Shatwell, T., Thongthaisong, P., &#38; Friederike
    Prowe, A. E. (2025). Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions: Linking Scales
    and Approaches. <i>Ecosystems</i>, <i>28</i>(2), Article 23. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7</a>'
  bjps: '<b>van Velzen E <i>et al.</i></b> (2025) Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web
    Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches. <i>Ecosystems</i> <b>28</b>.'
  chicago: 'Velzen, Ellen van, Sabine Wollrab, Onur Kerimoglu, Ursula Gaedke, Hans-Peter
    Grossart, Minoru Kasada, Helena C. L. Klip, et al. “Flexibility in Aquatic Food
    Web Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches.” <i>Ecosystems</i> 28, no. 2
    (2025). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7</a>.'
  chicago-de: 'van Velzen, Ellen, Sabine Wollrab, Onur Kerimoglu, Ursula Gaedke, Hans-Peter
    Grossart, Minoru Kasada, Helena C. L. Klip, u. a. 2025. Flexibility in Aquatic
    Food Web Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches. <i>Ecosystems</i> 28, Nr.
    2. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7">10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7</a>,
    .'
  din1505-2-1: '<span style="font-variant:small-caps;"><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">van
    Velzen, Ellen</span> ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Wollrab, Sabine</span>
    ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Kerimoglu, Onur</span> ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Gaedke,
    Ursula</span> ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Grossart, Hans-Peter</span>
    ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Kasada, Minoru</span> ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Klip,
    Helena C. L.</span> ; <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Moorthi, Stefanie</span>
    ; u. a.</span>: Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions: Linking Scales and
    Approaches. In: <i>Ecosystems</i> Bd. 28. New York, NY, Springer Science and Business
    Media LLC (2025), Nr. 2'
  havard: 'E. van Velzen, S. Wollrab, O. Kerimoglu, U. Gaedke, H.-P. Grossart, M.
    Kasada, H.C.L. Klip, S. Moorthi, T. Shatwell, P. Thongthaisong, A.E. Friederike
    Prowe, Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches,
    Ecosystems. 28 (2025).'
  ieee: 'E. van Velzen <i>et al.</i>, “Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions:
    Linking Scales and Approaches,” <i>Ecosystems</i>, vol. 28, no. 2, Art. no. 23,
    2025, doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7">10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7</a>.'
  mla: 'van Velzen, Ellen, et al. “Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions: Linking
    Scales and Approaches.” <i>Ecosystems</i>, vol. 28, no. 2, 23, 2025, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7</a>.'
  short: E. van Velzen, S. Wollrab, O. Kerimoglu, U. Gaedke, H.-P. Grossart, M. Kasada,
    H.C.L. Klip, S. Moorthi, T. Shatwell, P. Thongthaisong, A.E. Friederike Prowe,
    Ecosystems 28 (2025).
  ufg: '<b>Velzen, Ellen van u. a.</b>: Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions:
    Linking Scales and Approaches, in: <i>Ecosystems</i> 28 (2025), H. 2.'
  van: 'van Velzen E, Wollrab S, Kerimoglu O, Gaedke U, Grossart HP, Kasada M, et
    al. Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches.
    Ecosystems. 2025;28(2).'
date_created: 2025-04-23T14:32:48Z
date_updated: 2025-06-25T12:39:38Z
department:
- _id: DEP8000
- _id: DEP8022
doi: 10.1007/s10021-025-00968-7
external_id:
  isi:
  - '001450817700001'
intvolume: '        28'
isi: '1'
issue: '2'
keyword:
- Functional traits
- Plankton interactions
- Rapid evolution
- Phenotypic plasticity
- Ecosystem functioning
- Global change
- Upscaling
- Adaptation
language:
- iso: eng
place: New York, NY
publication: Ecosystems
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1435-0629
  issn:
  - 1432-9840
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
status: public
title: 'Flexibility in Aquatic Food Web Interactions: Linking Scales and Approaches'
type: scientific_journal_article
user_id: '83781'
volume: 28
year: '2025'
...