Revealing the links between species functional traits, interaction strength and food-web structure is of paramount importance for understanding and predicting the relationships between food-web diversity and stability in a rapidly changing world. However, little is known about the interactive effects of environmental perturbations on individual species, trophic interactions and ecosystem functioning. Here, we combined modelling and laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of warming and enrichment on a terrestrial tritrophic system. We found that the food-web structure is highly variable and switches between exploitative competition and omnivory depending on the effects of temperature and enrichment on foraging behaviour and species interaction strength. Our model contributes to identifying the mechanisms that explain how environmental effects cascade through the food web and influence its topology. We conclude that considering environmental factors and flexible food-web structure is crucial to improve our ability to predict the impacts of global changes on ecosystem diversity and stability.

Département de sciences biologiques Institut de recherche en biologie végétale Université de Montréal Montréal Québec H1X2B2 Canada; Université de Toulouse École Nationale de Formation Agronomique Unité Mixte de Recherche 5174 'Evolution et Diversité Biologique' Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique BP 22687 Castanet Tolosan 31326 France; Department of Ecosystem Biology Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia České Budějovice 370 05 Czech Republic

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