Shifts in temperature as a result of climate change play an important role in the long-term dynamics of resource use and resulting species interactions. Functional responses can give ecologically relevant insights of context-specific density-dependent resource use with low intensity animal use. This is especially useful when working with vulnerable species. The Rondegat River in South Africa’s Cape Fold Ecoregion (CFE) was subjected to an invasive species removal program and although the threatened cyprinid populations are in a state of recovery, they are still at risk from abiotic stressors. This community is characterised by an oligotrophic environment, shared ancestry and spatial overlap, suggesting high food resource competition between species. Functional responses of two cyprinid species were compared between two prey types (mosquito and chironomid larvae) at different field-representative temperatures (18 °C and 25 °C) in laboratory trials, with the aim to infer response and resilience to global change. Labeobarbus seeberi consistently outperformed Sedercypris calidus across prey types and temperature treatments at high prey densities. This was driven primarily by shorter handling times in L. seeberi, despite higher attack parameters in S. calidus under certain prey/temperature scenarios. Temperature increase had differential effects on prey consumption dependent on fish species and prey type. However, neither species showed significant intraspecific differences in functional response between temperature conditions for either prey species, indicating community resilience to thermal change in the CFE. Context-dependent experiments can be used in tandem with field data to identify conditions of potential ecological tipping points in imperilled systems.

气候变化导致的温度变化在资源利用的长期动态和由此产生的物种相互作用中发挥着重要作用。功能性反应可以为低强度动物使用的环境特定密度依赖资源使用提供生态相关的见解。这在处理脆弱物种时特别有用。南非开普折叠生态区 (CFE) 的 Rondegat 河受到入侵物种清除计划的影响，尽管受威胁的鲤科鱼类种群处于恢复状态，但它们仍面临非生物压力源的风险。该群落的特点是贫营养环境、共享祖先和空间重叠，表明物种之间存在高度的食物资源竞争。Labeobarbus seeberi在高猎物密度下的猎物类型和温度处理方面始终优于Sedercypris calidus。这主要是由于L. seeberi 的处理时间较短，尽管S. calidus 的攻击参数更高在某些猎物/温度情况下。温度升高对取决于鱼类种类和猎物类型的猎物消耗有不同的影响。然而，这两个物种在两种猎物的温度条件之间的功能反应方面都没有表现出显着的种内差异，这表明群落对 CFE 中的热变化具有弹性。上下文相关实验可与现场数据结合使用，以确定受威胁系统中潜在生态临界点的条件。