Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing
Abstract We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how “explicitly representing grazers” vs. “having grazer effects implicitly aggregated in with other biogeochemical processes in the model” alters predicted responses to elevated carbon dioxide...
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crwiley:10.1002/eap.2478 2024-06-23T07:50:27+00:00 Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing Rastetter, Edward B. Griffin, Kevin L. Rowe, Rebecca J. Gough, Laura McLaren, Jennie R. Boelman, Natalie T. National Science Foundation 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2478 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2478 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/eap.2478 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2478 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecological Applications volume 32, issue 1 ISSN 1051-0761 1939-5582 journal-article 2021 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2478 2024-06-06T04:24:13Z Abstract We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how “explicitly representing grazers” vs. “having grazer effects implicitly aggregated in with other biogeochemical processes in the model” alters predicted responses to elevated carbon dioxide and warming. The aggregated approach can affect model predictions because grazer‐mediated processes can respond differently to changes in climate compared with the processes with which they are typically aggregated. We use small‐mammal grazers in a tundra as an example and find that the typical three‐to‐four‐year cycling frequency is too fast for the effects of cycle peaks and troughs to be fully manifested in the ecosystem biogeochemistry. We conclude that implicitly aggregating the effects of small‐mammal grazers with other processes results in an underestimation of ecosystem response to climate change, relative to estimations in which the grazer effects are explicitly represented. The magnitude of this underestimation increases with grazer density. We therefore recommend that grazing effects be incorporated explicitly when applying models of ecosystem response to global change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Tundra Wiley Online Library Arctic Ecological Applications 32 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how “explicitly representing grazers” vs. “having grazer effects implicitly aggregated in with other biogeochemical processes in the model” alters predicted responses to elevated carbon dioxide and warming. The aggregated approach can affect model predictions because grazer‐mediated processes can respond differently to changes in climate compared with the processes with which they are typically aggregated. We use small‐mammal grazers in a tundra as an example and find that the typical three‐to‐four‐year cycling frequency is too fast for the effects of cycle peaks and troughs to be fully manifested in the ecosystem biogeochemistry. We conclude that implicitly aggregating the effects of small‐mammal grazers with other processes results in an underestimation of ecosystem response to climate change, relative to estimations in which the grazer effects are explicitly represented. The magnitude of this underestimation increases with grazer density. We therefore recommend that grazing effects be incorporated explicitly when applying models of ecosystem response to global change. |
author2 |
National Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rastetter, Edward B. Griffin, Kevin L. Rowe, Rebecca J. Gough, Laura McLaren, Jennie R. Boelman, Natalie T. |
spellingShingle |
Rastetter, Edward B. Griffin, Kevin L. Rowe, Rebecca J. Gough, Laura McLaren, Jennie R. Boelman, Natalie T. Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing |
author_facet |
Rastetter, Edward B. Griffin, Kevin L. Rowe, Rebecca J. Gough, Laura McLaren, Jennie R. Boelman, Natalie T. |
author_sort |
Rastetter, Edward B. |
title |
Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing |
title_short |
Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing |
title_full |
Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing |
title_fullStr |
Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing |
title_full_unstemmed |
Model responses to CO 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of Arctic small‐mammal grazing |
title_sort |
model responses to co 2 and warming are underestimated without explicit representation of arctic small‐mammal grazing |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2478 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2478 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/eap.2478 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2478 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
op_source |
Ecological Applications volume 32, issue 1 ISSN 1051-0761 1939-5582 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2478 |
container_title |
Ecological Applications |
container_volume |
32 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1802641345536327680 |