Figure legends
Figure 1: Experimental design. We manipulated relative patch size to
study its effect on the spatial coupling between autotrophic and
heterotrophic ecosystems in experimental protist two-patch
meta-ecosystems. Capital letters describe patch size and type: S = small patch, M = medium patch, L = large patch, A = autotrophic patch, H = heterotrophic patch. The subscript
indicates the size and trophic type of the connected patch. The
disturbed part of the respective system is indicated with a lightning
bolt. This part of the patch was heated to turn living biomass into
detritus and then used for bi-directional resource flow or retained,
respectively, in the connected vs. unconnected meta-ecosystems. Each
treatment was replicated five times, resulting in 60 patches.
Figure 2: Time series of meta-ecosystem protist total biomass. For
connected meta-ecosystems, dots indicate means across replicates. For
unconnected meta-ecosystems, dots indicate the mean of possible
combinations of unconnected ecosystems, assembled as unconnected
meta-ecosystems. Error bars indicate 95 % confidence intervals;
vertical grey lines indicate disturbance events that were followed by
resource flows. Points are slightly jittered along the x-axis to improve
the clarity of the figure. The area in grey encompasses the time points
that were not considered for analysis, as meta-ecosystems at these time
points were sampled before the first disturbance and resource flow
event.
Figure 3: Time series of local level protist biomass density and effects
of the connection via resource flows on local patches in autotrophic-,
equally-, and heterotrophic-dominated connected meta-ecosystems,
respectively. Dots represent means across replicates. Error bars
indicate 95 % confidence intervals; vertical grey lines indicate
disturbance events which were followed by resource flows. Points are
slightly jittered along the x-axis to improve the clarity of the figure.
The area in grey encompasses the time points that were not considered
for analysis, as patches at these time points were sampled before the
first disturbance and resource flow.