The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools)
Roads affect the ecosystems they traverse: road construction and maintenance constitute substantial disturbance, while roads and vehicles have hydrological, thermal, and other abiotic effects. Arthropod communities respond to these abiotic effects of roads, as well as to the indirect effects of vege...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic4702 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/67740/51636 |
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crarcticinstna:10.14430/arctic4702 2024-06-09T07:41:56+00:00 The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) Ste-Marie, Eric Turney, Shaun Buddle, Christopher M. 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic4702 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/67740/51636 unknown The Arctic Institute of North America http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ARCTIC volume 71, issue 1 ISSN 1923-1245 0004-0843 journal-article 2018 crarcticinstna https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4702 2024-05-14T12:53:43Z Roads affect the ecosystems they traverse: road construction and maintenance constitute substantial disturbance, while roads and vehicles have hydrological, thermal, and other abiotic effects. Arthropod communities respond to these abiotic effects of roads, as well as to the indirect effects of vegetation changes. The Dempster Highway is a year-round gravel highway that travels 737 km through the Subarctic and Arctic ecosystems of Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Canada. In July 2016, in a Subarctic region of Yukon, we established nine transects spaced at 4 – 12 km intervals along a 56 km segment of the Dempster Highway and sampled arthropods at 1, 10, and 100 m from the highway on each transect. Our objective was to determine the effect of road proximity on the diversity, abundance, and composition of arthropod communities, with a special focus on the functionally and phylogenetically diverse group, Hymenoptera. We found that total arthropod abundance was lowest at the intermediate distance from the road, a pattern driven by high Diptera abundance close to the road and high Collembola abundance far from the road. We suggest that Diptera may be responding to increased moisture and plant biomass near the road, while Collembola may be responding to changes in soil characteristics. Hymenoptera abundance was greater close to the road than farther away, a pattern that may be driven by high Diptera parasitoid abundance near the road. Our results suggest that arthropods are good indicators of ecosystem function and that roads may have important effects on Subarctic ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, pest control). As infrastructural development continues in the Canadian North, it is of vital importance to anticipate and predict the effects of this development on the unique and diverse fauna of the Subarctic ecosystem. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Northwest Territories Subarctic Yukon Arctic Institute of North America Arctic Canada Northwest Territories Yukon ARCTIC 71 1 |
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Arctic Institute of North America |
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Roads affect the ecosystems they traverse: road construction and maintenance constitute substantial disturbance, while roads and vehicles have hydrological, thermal, and other abiotic effects. Arthropod communities respond to these abiotic effects of roads, as well as to the indirect effects of vegetation changes. The Dempster Highway is a year-round gravel highway that travels 737 km through the Subarctic and Arctic ecosystems of Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Canada. In July 2016, in a Subarctic region of Yukon, we established nine transects spaced at 4 – 12 km intervals along a 56 km segment of the Dempster Highway and sampled arthropods at 1, 10, and 100 m from the highway on each transect. Our objective was to determine the effect of road proximity on the diversity, abundance, and composition of arthropod communities, with a special focus on the functionally and phylogenetically diverse group, Hymenoptera. We found that total arthropod abundance was lowest at the intermediate distance from the road, a pattern driven by high Diptera abundance close to the road and high Collembola abundance far from the road. We suggest that Diptera may be responding to increased moisture and plant biomass near the road, while Collembola may be responding to changes in soil characteristics. Hymenoptera abundance was greater close to the road than farther away, a pattern that may be driven by high Diptera parasitoid abundance near the road. Our results suggest that arthropods are good indicators of ecosystem function and that roads may have important effects on Subarctic ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, pest control). As infrastructural development continues in the Canadian North, it is of vital importance to anticipate and predict the effects of this development on the unique and diverse fauna of the Subarctic ecosystem. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ste-Marie, Eric Turney, Shaun Buddle, Christopher M. |
spellingShingle |
Ste-Marie, Eric Turney, Shaun Buddle, Christopher M. The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) |
author_facet |
Ste-Marie, Eric Turney, Shaun Buddle, Christopher M. |
author_sort |
Ste-Marie, Eric |
title |
The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) |
title_short |
The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) |
title_full |
The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) |
title_fullStr |
The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Effect of Road Proximity on Arthropod Communities in Yukon, Canada + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools) |
title_sort |
effect of road proximity on arthropod communities in yukon, canada + supplementary appendix 1 (see article tools) |
publisher |
The Arctic Institute of North America |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic4702 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/67740/51636 |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Northwest Territories Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Northwest Territories Yukon |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Northwest Territories Subarctic Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Northwest Territories Subarctic Yukon |
op_source |
ARCTIC volume 71, issue 1 ISSN 1923-1245 0004-0843 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4702 |
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ARCTIC |
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71 |
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1 |
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1801370643472580608 |