Ornithogenic vegetation: How significant has the seabird influence been on the Aleutian Island vegetation during the Holocene?

• Published in: Ecology and Evolution
• Main Authors: Smyshlyaeva, Olesya Igorevna, Severova, Elena Erastovna, Krylovich, Olga Aleksandrovna, Kuzmicheva, Evgeniya Andreevna, Savinetsky, Arkady Borisovich, Dixie, West, Hatfield, Virginia
• Other Authors: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, National Geographic Society Education Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2021
• Subjects: Aleutian Island; Tundra; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8121; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8121; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8121

Abstract In the Aleutian Islands during the Holocene, terrestrial predators were actually absent; as a result, large seabird colonies thrived along the coasts or across entire islands. Bird guano enriches the soil with nitrogen, which can lead to the formation of highly modified ornithogenic (bird‐f...