Data from: The fluctuating world of a tundra predator guild: bottom-up constraints overrule top-down species interactions in winter ...

• Main Authors: Stoessel, Marianne, Elmhagen, Bodil, Vinka, Mikael, Hellström, Peter, Angerbjörn, Anders
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2018
• Subjects: Gulo gulo; Lemmus lemmus; Vulpes lagopus; Lagopus lagopus; Lagopus muta; Arctic ecosystems; bottom-up versus top-down effect; Arctic; Arctic Fox; Global warming; Northern Sweden; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rk64m4c; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rk64m4c

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 year 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 ... : Snowtrack abundance index of an arctic predator guild and their main prey in Vindelfjällen, 2004-2015Excel file containing three sheets: Abundance_index_2004_2015 Environmental_data Phase_of_rodent_cycleTriangle_data_2004_2015.xlsx ...