Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens
Top predators can provide fundamental ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, and their impact can be even greater in environments with low nutrients and productivity, such as Arctic tundra. We estimated the effects of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) denning on soil nutrient dynamics and vegetation...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4820751 2023-05-15T14:31:11+02:00 Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens Gharajehdaghipour, Tazarve Roth, James D. Fafard, Paul M. Markham, John H. 2016-04-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820751/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27045973 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24020 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820751/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27045973 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep24020 Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2016 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24020 2016-04-10T00:21:46Z Top predators can provide fundamental ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, and their impact can be even greater in environments with low nutrients and productivity, such as Arctic tundra. We estimated the effects of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) denning on soil nutrient dynamics and vegetation production near Churchill, Manitoba in June and August 2014. Soils from fox dens contained higher nutrient levels in June (71% more inorganic nitrogen, 1195% more extractable phosphorous) and in August (242% more inorganic nitrogen, 191% more extractable phosphorous) than adjacent control sites. Inorganic nitrogen levels decreased from June to August on both dens and controls, whereas extractable phosphorous increased. Pup production the previous year, which should enhance nutrient deposition (from urine, feces, and decomposing prey), did not affect soil nutrient concentrations, suggesting the impact of Arctic foxes persists >1 year. Dens supported 2.8 times greater vegetation biomass in August, but δ15N values in sea lyme grass (Leymus mollis) were unaffected by denning. By concentrating nutrients on dens Arctic foxes enhance nutrient cycling as an ecosystem service and thus engineer Arctic ecosystems on local scales. The enhanced productivity in patches on the landscape could subsequently affect plant diversity and the dispersion of herbivores on the tundra. Text Arctic Fox Arctic Churchill Tundra Vulpes lagopus PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Scientific Reports 6 1 |
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Article Gharajehdaghipour, Tazarve Roth, James D. Fafard, Paul M. Markham, John H. Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
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Article |
description |
Top predators can provide fundamental ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, and their impact can be even greater in environments with low nutrients and productivity, such as Arctic tundra. We estimated the effects of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) denning on soil nutrient dynamics and vegetation production near Churchill, Manitoba in June and August 2014. Soils from fox dens contained higher nutrient levels in June (71% more inorganic nitrogen, 1195% more extractable phosphorous) and in August (242% more inorganic nitrogen, 191% more extractable phosphorous) than adjacent control sites. Inorganic nitrogen levels decreased from June to August on both dens and controls, whereas extractable phosphorous increased. Pup production the previous year, which should enhance nutrient deposition (from urine, feces, and decomposing prey), did not affect soil nutrient concentrations, suggesting the impact of Arctic foxes persists >1 year. Dens supported 2.8 times greater vegetation biomass in August, but δ15N values in sea lyme grass (Leymus mollis) were unaffected by denning. By concentrating nutrients on dens Arctic foxes enhance nutrient cycling as an ecosystem service and thus engineer Arctic ecosystems on local scales. The enhanced productivity in patches on the landscape could subsequently affect plant diversity and the dispersion of herbivores on the tundra. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gharajehdaghipour, Tazarve Roth, James D. Fafard, Paul M. Markham, John H. |
author_facet |
Gharajehdaghipour, Tazarve Roth, James D. Fafard, Paul M. Markham, John H. |
author_sort |
Gharajehdaghipour, Tazarve |
title |
Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
title_short |
Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
title_full |
Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
title_fullStr |
Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
title_sort |
arctic foxes as ecosystem engineers: increased soil nutrients lead to increased plant productivity on fox dens |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820751/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27045973 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24020 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Fox Arctic Churchill Tundra Vulpes lagopus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Fox Arctic Churchill Tundra Vulpes lagopus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820751/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27045973 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep24020 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24020 |
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Scientific Reports |
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6 |
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1 |
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