Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents.
Small rodents with multi-annual population cycles strongly influence the dynamics of food webs, and in particular predator-prey interactions, across most of the tundra biome. Rodents are however absent from some arctic islands, and studies on performance of arctic predators under such circumstances...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:8514a739d8d74d79ae62c09f9d9140c7 2023-05-15T14:31:06+02:00 Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. Ivan Pokrovsky Dorothée Ehrich Rolf A Ims Alexander V Kondratyev Helmut Kruckenberg Olga Kulikova Julia Mihnevich Liya Pokrovskaya Alexander Shienok 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 https://doaj.org/article/8514a739d8d74d79ae62c09f9d9140c7 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 https://doaj.org/article/8514a739d8d74d79ae62c09f9d9140c7 PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 2, p e0118740 (2015) Medicine R Science Q article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 2022-12-31T07:36:41Z Small rodents with multi-annual population cycles strongly influence the dynamics of food webs, and in particular predator-prey interactions, across most of the tundra biome. Rodents are however absent from some arctic islands, and studies on performance of arctic predators under such circumstances may be very instructive since rodent cycles have been predicted to collapse in a warming Arctic. Here we document for the first time how three normally rodent-dependent predator species-rough-legged buzzard, arctic fox and red fox - perform in a low-arctic ecosystem with no rodents. During six years (in 2006-2008 and 2011-2013) we studied diet and breeding performance of these predators in the rodent-free Kolguev Island in Arctic Russia. The rough-legged buzzards, previously known to be a small rodent specialist, have only during the last two decades become established on Kolguev Island. The buzzards successfully breed on the island at stable low density, but with high productivity based on goslings and willow ptarmigan as their main prey - altogether representing a novel ecological situation for this species. Breeding density of arctic fox varied from year to year, but with stable productivity based on mainly geese as prey. The density dynamic of the arctic fox appeared to be correlated with the date of spring arrival of the geese. Red foxes breed regularly on the island but in very low numbers that appear to have been unchanged over a long period - a situation that resemble what has been recently documented from Arctic America. Our study suggests that the three predators found breeding on Kolguev Island possess capacities for shifting to changing circumstances in low-arctic ecosystem as long as other small - medium sized terrestrial herbivores are present in good numbers. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Fox Arctic Kolguev Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS ONE 10 2 e0118740 |
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English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Ivan Pokrovsky Dorothée Ehrich Rolf A Ims Alexander V Kondratyev Helmut Kruckenberg Olga Kulikova Julia Mihnevich Liya Pokrovskaya Alexander Shienok Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Small rodents with multi-annual population cycles strongly influence the dynamics of food webs, and in particular predator-prey interactions, across most of the tundra biome. Rodents are however absent from some arctic islands, and studies on performance of arctic predators under such circumstances may be very instructive since rodent cycles have been predicted to collapse in a warming Arctic. Here we document for the first time how three normally rodent-dependent predator species-rough-legged buzzard, arctic fox and red fox - perform in a low-arctic ecosystem with no rodents. During six years (in 2006-2008 and 2011-2013) we studied diet and breeding performance of these predators in the rodent-free Kolguev Island in Arctic Russia. The rough-legged buzzards, previously known to be a small rodent specialist, have only during the last two decades become established on Kolguev Island. The buzzards successfully breed on the island at stable low density, but with high productivity based on goslings and willow ptarmigan as their main prey - altogether representing a novel ecological situation for this species. Breeding density of arctic fox varied from year to year, but with stable productivity based on mainly geese as prey. The density dynamic of the arctic fox appeared to be correlated with the date of spring arrival of the geese. Red foxes breed regularly on the island but in very low numbers that appear to have been unchanged over a long period - a situation that resemble what has been recently documented from Arctic America. Our study suggests that the three predators found breeding on Kolguev Island possess capacities for shifting to changing circumstances in low-arctic ecosystem as long as other small - medium sized terrestrial herbivores are present in good numbers. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ivan Pokrovsky Dorothée Ehrich Rolf A Ims Alexander V Kondratyev Helmut Kruckenberg Olga Kulikova Julia Mihnevich Liya Pokrovskaya Alexander Shienok |
author_facet |
Ivan Pokrovsky Dorothée Ehrich Rolf A Ims Alexander V Kondratyev Helmut Kruckenberg Olga Kulikova Julia Mihnevich Liya Pokrovskaya Alexander Shienok |
author_sort |
Ivan Pokrovsky |
title |
Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
title_short |
Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
title_full |
Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
title_fullStr |
Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rough-legged buzzards, Arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
title_sort |
rough-legged buzzards, arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 https://doaj.org/article/8514a739d8d74d79ae62c09f9d9140c7 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Fox Arctic Kolguev Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Fox Arctic Kolguev Tundra |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 2, p e0118740 (2015) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 https://doaj.org/article/8514a739d8d74d79ae62c09f9d9140c7 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
10 |
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2 |
container_start_page |
e0118740 |
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