Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems
Biodiversity is threatened by climate change and other human activities [1], but to assess impacts, we also need to identify the current distribution of species on Earth. Predicting abundance and richness patterns is difficult in many regions and especially so on the remote Antarctic continent, due...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:520203 2023-05-15T14:02:21+02:00 Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems Bokhorst, Stef Convey, Peter Aerts, Rien 2019-05-20 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/1/Bokhorst%20et%20al%202019%20Current%20Biology%20Vertebrate%20fertilisation.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/7/Bokhorst%20et%20al%20penguin%202019.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982219304361?via%3Dihub en eng Elsevier https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/1/Bokhorst%20et%20al%202019%20Current%20Biology%20Vertebrate%20fertilisation.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/7/Bokhorst%20et%20al%20penguin%202019.pdf Bokhorst, Stef; Convey, Peter orcid:0000-0001-8497-9903 Aerts, Rien. 2019 Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems. Current Biology, 29 (10). 1721-1727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.038 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.038> cc_by_nc_nd_4 CC-BY-NC-ND Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.038 2023-02-24T00:02:01Z Biodiversity is threatened by climate change and other human activities [1], but to assess impacts, we also need to identify the current distribution of species on Earth. Predicting abundance and richness patterns is difficult in many regions and especially so on the remote Antarctic continent, due to periods of snow cover, which limit remote sensing, and the small size of the biota present. As the Earth’s coldest continent, temperature and water availability have received particular attention in understanding patterns of Antarctic biodiversity [2], whereas nitrogen availability has received less attention [3]. Nitrogen input by birds is a major nutrient source in many regions on Earth [4, 5, 6, 7], and input from penguins and seals is associated with increased plant growth [8, 9, 10] and soil respiration [11, 12, 13] at some Antarctic locations. However, the consequences of increased nitrogen concentrations in Antarctic mosses and lichens for their associated food web has hardly been addressed [14, 15], despite the fact that nutrient status of primary producers affects the abundance and diversity of higher trophic levels [16, 17]. We show that nitrogen input and δ15N signatures from marine vertebrates are associated with terrestrial biodiversity hotspots well beyond (>1,000 m) their immediate colony borders along the Antarctic Peninsula. Invertebrate abundance and richness was two to eight times higher under penguin and elephant seal influence. The nitrogen footprint area was correlated with the vertebrate population size. These findings improve our ability to predict biogeographical patterns of Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity through knowledge of the location and size of penguin and elephant seal concentrations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Elephant Seal Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Current Biology 29 10 1721 1727.e3 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Biodiversity is threatened by climate change and other human activities [1], but to assess impacts, we also need to identify the current distribution of species on Earth. Predicting abundance and richness patterns is difficult in many regions and especially so on the remote Antarctic continent, due to periods of snow cover, which limit remote sensing, and the small size of the biota present. As the Earth’s coldest continent, temperature and water availability have received particular attention in understanding patterns of Antarctic biodiversity [2], whereas nitrogen availability has received less attention [3]. Nitrogen input by birds is a major nutrient source in many regions on Earth [4, 5, 6, 7], and input from penguins and seals is associated with increased plant growth [8, 9, 10] and soil respiration [11, 12, 13] at some Antarctic locations. However, the consequences of increased nitrogen concentrations in Antarctic mosses and lichens for their associated food web has hardly been addressed [14, 15], despite the fact that nutrient status of primary producers affects the abundance and diversity of higher trophic levels [16, 17]. We show that nitrogen input and δ15N signatures from marine vertebrates are associated with terrestrial biodiversity hotspots well beyond (>1,000 m) their immediate colony borders along the Antarctic Peninsula. Invertebrate abundance and richness was two to eight times higher under penguin and elephant seal influence. The nitrogen footprint area was correlated with the vertebrate population size. These findings improve our ability to predict biogeographical patterns of Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity through knowledge of the location and size of penguin and elephant seal concentrations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bokhorst, Stef Convey, Peter Aerts, Rien |
spellingShingle |
Bokhorst, Stef Convey, Peter Aerts, Rien Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
author_facet |
Bokhorst, Stef Convey, Peter Aerts, Rien |
author_sort |
Bokhorst, Stef |
title |
Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
title_short |
Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
title_full |
Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
title_sort |
nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in antarctic terrestrial ecosystems |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/1/Bokhorst%20et%20al%202019%20Current%20Biology%20Vertebrate%20fertilisation.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/7/Bokhorst%20et%20al%20penguin%202019.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982219304361?via%3Dihub |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Elephant Seal |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Elephant Seal |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/1/Bokhorst%20et%20al%202019%20Current%20Biology%20Vertebrate%20fertilisation.pdf https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520203/7/Bokhorst%20et%20al%20penguin%202019.pdf Bokhorst, Stef; Convey, Peter orcid:0000-0001-8497-9903 Aerts, Rien. 2019 Nitrogen inputs by marine vertebrates drive abundance and richness in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems. Current Biology, 29 (10). 1721-1727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.038 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.038> |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc_nd_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.038 |
container_title |
Current Biology |
container_volume |
29 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
1721 |
op_container_end_page |
1727.e3 |
_version_ |
1766272578679209984 |