Reconceptualizing synergism and antagonism among multiple stressors.

ABSTRACT: The potential for complex synergistic or antagonistic interactions between multiple stressors presents one of the largest uncertainties when predicting ecological change but, despite common use of the terms in the scientific literature, a consensus on their operational definition is still lacking. The identification of synergism or antagonism is generally straightforward when stressors operate in the same direction, but if individual stressor effects oppose each other, the definition of synergism is paradoxical because what is synergistic to one stressor's effect direction is antagonistic to the others. In their highly cited meta-analysis, Crain et al. (Ecology Letters, 11, 2008: 1304) assumed in situations with opposing individual effects that synergy only occurs when the cumulative effec

SUBMITTER: Piggott JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4395182 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature