Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains
Abstract Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength, and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.8537 2024-06-02T08:01:39+00:00 Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains Zvereva, Elena L. Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail V. 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8537 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8537 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8537 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8537 2024-05-03T11:54:28Z Abstract Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength, and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one important source of this variation, but the acute shortage of data from polar mountains hampers exploration of latitude effects on elevational changes in herbivory. Here, we reduce this knowledge gap by exploring six elevation gradients located in three Arctic mountain ranges to test the prediction that a decrease in herbivory occurs with increasing elevation from forest to alpine tundra. Across the 10 most abundant evergreen and deciduous woody plant species, relative losses of foliage to insect herbivores were 2.2‐fold greater at the highest elevations (alpine tundra) than in mid‐elevation birch woodlands or low‐elevation coniferous forests. Plant quality for herbivores (quantified by specific leaf area) significantly decreased with elevation across all studied species, indicating that bottom‐up factors were unlikely to shape the observed pattern in herbivory. An experiment with open‐top chambers established at different elevations showed that even a slight increase in ambient temperature enhances herbivory in Arctic mountains. Therefore, we suggest that the discovered increase in herbivory with elevation is explained by higher temperatures at the soil surface in open habitats above the tree line compared with forests at lower elevations. This explanation is supported by the significant difference in elevational changes in herbivory between low and tall plants: herbivory on low shrubs increased fourfold from forest to alpine sites, while herbivory on trees and tall shrubs did not change with elevation. We suggest that an increase in herbivory with an increase in elevation is typical for high‐latitude mountains, where inverse temperature gradients, especially at the soil surface, are common. Verification of this ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Tundra Wiley Online Library Arctic Ecology and Evolution 12 1 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
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Abstract Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength, and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one important source of this variation, but the acute shortage of data from polar mountains hampers exploration of latitude effects on elevational changes in herbivory. Here, we reduce this knowledge gap by exploring six elevation gradients located in three Arctic mountain ranges to test the prediction that a decrease in herbivory occurs with increasing elevation from forest to alpine tundra. Across the 10 most abundant evergreen and deciduous woody plant species, relative losses of foliage to insect herbivores were 2.2‐fold greater at the highest elevations (alpine tundra) than in mid‐elevation birch woodlands or low‐elevation coniferous forests. Plant quality for herbivores (quantified by specific leaf area) significantly decreased with elevation across all studied species, indicating that bottom‐up factors were unlikely to shape the observed pattern in herbivory. An experiment with open‐top chambers established at different elevations showed that even a slight increase in ambient temperature enhances herbivory in Arctic mountains. Therefore, we suggest that the discovered increase in herbivory with elevation is explained by higher temperatures at the soil surface in open habitats above the tree line compared with forests at lower elevations. This explanation is supported by the significant difference in elevational changes in herbivory between low and tall plants: herbivory on low shrubs increased fourfold from forest to alpine sites, while herbivory on trees and tall shrubs did not change with elevation. We suggest that an increase in herbivory with an increase in elevation is typical for high‐latitude mountains, where inverse temperature gradients, especially at the soil surface, are common. Verification of this ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zvereva, Elena L. Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail V. |
spellingShingle |
Zvereva, Elena L. Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail V. Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
author_facet |
Zvereva, Elena L. Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail V. |
author_sort |
Zvereva, Elena L. |
title |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_short |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_full |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_fullStr |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_full_unstemmed |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_sort |
insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in arctic mountains |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8537 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8537 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8537 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Tundra |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8537 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1800746054852804608 |