The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter
Global warming is predicted to change ecosystem functioning and structure in Arctic ecosystems by strengthening top‐down species interactions, i.e. predation pressure on small herbivores and interference between predators. Yet, previous research is biased towards the summer season. Due to greater ab...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03984 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.03984 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.03984 |
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crwiley:10.1111/ecog.03984 2024-06-23T07:48:58+00:00 The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter Stoessel, Marianne Elmhagen, Bodil Vinka, Mikael Hellström, Peter Angerbjörn, Anders 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03984 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.03984 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.03984 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ecography volume 42, issue 3, page 488-499 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 journal-article 2018 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03984 2024-05-31T08:15:32Z Global warming is predicted to change ecosystem functioning and structure in Arctic ecosystems by strengthening top‐down species interactions, i.e. predation pressure on small herbivores and interference between predators. Yet, previous research is biased towards the summer season. Due to greater abiotic constraints, Arctic ecosystem characteristics might be more pronounced in winter. Here we test the hypothesis that top‐down species interactions prevail over bottom‐up effects in Scandinavian mountain tundra (Northern Sweden) where effects of climate warming have been observed and top‐down interactions are expected to strengthen. But we test this ‘a priori’ hypothesis in winter and throughout the 3–4 yr rodent cycle, which imposes additional pulsed resource constraints. We used snowtracking data recorded in 12 winters (2004–2015) to analyse the spatial patterns of a tundra predator guild (arctic fox Vulpes lagopus , red fox Vulpes vulpes , wolverine Gulo gulo ) and small prey (ptarmigan, Lagopus spp). The a priori top‐down hypothesis was then tested through structural equation modelling, for each phase of the rodent cycle. There was weak support for this hypothesis, with top‐down effects only discerned on arctic fox (weakly, by wolverine) and ptarmigan (by arctic fox) at intermediate and high rodent availability respectively. Overall, bottom‐up constraints appeared more influential on the winter community structure. Cold specialist predators (arctic fox and wolverine) showed variable landscape associations, while the boreal predator (red fox) appeared strongly dependent on productive habitats and ptarmigan abundance. Thus, we suggest that the unpredictability of food resources determines the winter ecology of the cold specialist predators, while the boreal predator relies on resource‐rich habitats. The constraints imposed by winters and temporary resource lows should therefore counteract productivity‐driven ecosystem change and have a stabilising effect on community structure. Hence, the interplay between summer ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Fox Arctic Global warming Gulo gulo Northern Sweden Tundra Vulpes lagopus Wiley Online Library Arctic Ecography 42 3 488 499 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Global warming is predicted to change ecosystem functioning and structure in Arctic ecosystems by strengthening top‐down species interactions, i.e. predation pressure on small herbivores and interference between predators. Yet, previous research is biased towards the summer season. Due to greater abiotic constraints, Arctic ecosystem characteristics might be more pronounced in winter. Here we test the hypothesis that top‐down species interactions prevail over bottom‐up effects in Scandinavian mountain tundra (Northern Sweden) where effects of climate warming have been observed and top‐down interactions are expected to strengthen. But we test this ‘a priori’ hypothesis in winter and throughout the 3–4 yr rodent cycle, which imposes additional pulsed resource constraints. We used snowtracking data recorded in 12 winters (2004–2015) to analyse the spatial patterns of a tundra predator guild (arctic fox Vulpes lagopus , red fox Vulpes vulpes , wolverine Gulo gulo ) and small prey (ptarmigan, Lagopus spp). The a priori top‐down hypothesis was then tested through structural equation modelling, for each phase of the rodent cycle. There was weak support for this hypothesis, with top‐down effects only discerned on arctic fox (weakly, by wolverine) and ptarmigan (by arctic fox) at intermediate and high rodent availability respectively. Overall, bottom‐up constraints appeared more influential on the winter community structure. Cold specialist predators (arctic fox and wolverine) showed variable landscape associations, while the boreal predator (red fox) appeared strongly dependent on productive habitats and ptarmigan abundance. Thus, we suggest that the unpredictability of food resources determines the winter ecology of the cold specialist predators, while the boreal predator relies on resource‐rich habitats. The constraints imposed by winters and temporary resource lows should therefore counteract productivity‐driven ecosystem change and have a stabilising effect on community structure. Hence, the interplay between summer ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stoessel, Marianne Elmhagen, Bodil Vinka, Mikael Hellström, Peter Angerbjörn, Anders |
spellingShingle |
Stoessel, Marianne Elmhagen, Bodil Vinka, Mikael Hellström, Peter Angerbjörn, Anders The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
author_facet |
Stoessel, Marianne Elmhagen, Bodil Vinka, Mikael Hellström, Peter Angerbjörn, Anders |
author_sort |
Stoessel, Marianne |
title |
The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
title_short |
The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
title_full |
The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
title_fullStr |
The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
title_full_unstemmed |
The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
title_sort |
fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom‐up constraints overrule top‐down species interactions in winter |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03984 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.03984 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.03984 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Fox Arctic Global warming Gulo gulo Northern Sweden Tundra Vulpes lagopus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Fox Arctic Global warming Gulo gulo Northern Sweden Tundra Vulpes lagopus |
op_source |
Ecography volume 42, issue 3, page 488-499 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03984 |
container_title |
Ecography |
container_volume |
42 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
488 |
op_container_end_page |
499 |
_version_ |
1802639269328584704 |