Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade
Understanding trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife communities is a major challenge because these systems are difficult to sample properly. We show how a tradition of non‐random sampling has confounded this understanding in a textbook system (Yellowstone National Park) where carnivore [Canis lup...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9298920 2023-05-15T15:50:09+02:00 Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade Brice, Elaine M. Larsen, Eric J. MacNulty, Daniel R. 2021-11-08 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298920/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34748261 https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13915 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298920/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34748261 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13915 © 2021 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. CC-BY-NC Ecol Lett Letters Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13915 2022-07-31T02:17:41Z Understanding trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife communities is a major challenge because these systems are difficult to sample properly. We show how a tradition of non‐random sampling has confounded this understanding in a textbook system (Yellowstone National Park) where carnivore [Canis lupus (wolf)] recovery is associated with a trophic cascade involving changes in herbivore [Cervus canadensis (elk)] behaviour and density that promote plant regeneration. Long‐term data indicate a practice of sampling only the tallest young plants overestimated regeneration of overstory aspen (Populus tremuloides) by a factor of 4–7 compared to random sampling because it favoured plants taller than the preferred browsing height of elk and overlooked non‐regenerating aspen stands. Random sampling described a trophic cascade, but it was weaker than the one that non‐random sampling described. Our findings highlight the critical importance of basic sampling principles (e.g. randomisation) for achieving an accurate understanding of trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife systems. Text Canis lupus PubMed Central (PMC) Ecology Letters 25 1 177 188 |
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Letters Brice, Elaine M. Larsen, Eric J. MacNulty, Daniel R. Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
topic_facet |
Letters |
description |
Understanding trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife communities is a major challenge because these systems are difficult to sample properly. We show how a tradition of non‐random sampling has confounded this understanding in a textbook system (Yellowstone National Park) where carnivore [Canis lupus (wolf)] recovery is associated with a trophic cascade involving changes in herbivore [Cervus canadensis (elk)] behaviour and density that promote plant regeneration. Long‐term data indicate a practice of sampling only the tallest young plants overestimated regeneration of overstory aspen (Populus tremuloides) by a factor of 4–7 compared to random sampling because it favoured plants taller than the preferred browsing height of elk and overlooked non‐regenerating aspen stands. Random sampling described a trophic cascade, but it was weaker than the one that non‐random sampling described. Our findings highlight the critical importance of basic sampling principles (e.g. randomisation) for achieving an accurate understanding of trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife systems. |
format |
Text |
author |
Brice, Elaine M. Larsen, Eric J. MacNulty, Daniel R. |
author_facet |
Brice, Elaine M. Larsen, Eric J. MacNulty, Daniel R. |
author_sort |
Brice, Elaine M. |
title |
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
title_short |
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
title_full |
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
title_fullStr |
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
title_sort |
sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298920/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34748261 https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13915 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Ecol Lett |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9298920/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34748261 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13915 |
op_rights |
© 2021 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13915 |
container_title |
Ecology Letters |
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25 |
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1 |
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177 |
op_container_end_page |
188 |
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1766385134478557184 |