Nonlinear trends in abundance and diversity and complex responses to climate change in Arctic arthropods
Arthropods are excellent indicators for studying global change in the rapidly changing climate of the Arctic. We used the most comprehensive standardized dataset on Arctic arthropods to quantify diversity and abundance variation over 24 y in an area that is warming rapidly. Overall arthropod abundan...
| Published in: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/ac80159c-baa6-403f-926c-0a9e25dadfe7 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002557117 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7812779/pdf/pnas.202002557.pdf http://www.pnas.org/content/118/2/e2002557117.abstract |
| Summary: | Arthropods are excellent indicators for studying global change in the rapidly changing climate of the Arctic. We used the most comprehensive standardized dataset on Arctic arthropods to quantify diversity and abundance variation over 24 y in an area that is warming rapidly. Overall arthropod abundance and diversity showed opposing nonlinear trends, with a sharp increase in overall abundance in recent years. However, trends varied substantially among taxa and habitats and several groups declined in abundance. We found strong evidence of conditions outside the growing season and density-dependent feedbacks affecting abundance. Our results emphasize the need for a more integrated approach to investigating arthropod responses to environmental stressors at finer taxonomic resolution and by incorporating time-lagged effects.Time series data on arthropod populations are critical for understanding the magnitude, direction, and drivers of change. However, most arthropod monitoring programs are short-lived and restricted in taxonomic resolution. Monitoring data from the Arctic are especially underrepresented, yet critical to uncovering and understanding some of the earliest biological responses to rapid environmental change. Clear imprints of climate on the behavior and life history of some Arctic arthropods have been demonstrated, but a synthesis of population-level abundance changes across taxa is lacking. We utilized 24 y of abundance data from Zackenberg in High-Arctic Greenland to assess trends in abundance and diversity and identify potential climatic drivers of abundance changes. Unlike findings from temperate systems, we found a nonlinear pattern, with total arthropod abundance gradually declining during 1996 to 2014, followed by a sharp increase. Family-level diversity showed the opposite pattern, suggesting increasing dominance of a small number of taxa. Total abundance masked more complicated trajectories of family-level abundance, which also frequently varied among habitats. Contrary to expectation in this ... |
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