Cumulative effects of global changes on the food webs of the St. Lawrence System

Biodiversity extends beyond species, encompassing diverse interactions crucial for ecological dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Still, these interactions remain overwhelmingly overlooked in environmental management. Here, we assess the cumulative effects of 18 stressors on 193 species between 2010 and 2015 in the St. Lawrence marine ecosystem in eastern Canada. We use a novel approach that explicitly considers the less obvious yet no less significant effects arising from species interactions in a multiple stressors framework. We uncover overlooked threats, particularly for exploited or endangered fishes and marine mammals. This highlights potentially significant gaps in management and recovery strategies that generally overlook interactions. Our novel ecosystem-based approach fills this void by incorporating the less obvious yet no less significant effects arising from species interactions in a multiple stressors framework.