Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska
Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 Anthropogenic climate change is rapidly altering alpine ecosystems in Alaska. Trees and woody shrubs are expanding upslope and displacing alpine tundra. As alpine tundra habitats shrink and fragment, arthropods and other animals face an increased ri...
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ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/12297 2023-05-15T18:39:45+02:00 Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska Haberski, Adam Sikes, Derek S. Hollingsworth, Teresa Armbruster, W. Scott 2020-08 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12297 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12297 Department of Biology Beetles Alaska Denali National Park and Preserve Ecology Spiders Mountain ecology Tundra ecology Master of Science in Biological Sciences Thesis ms 2020 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:37:53Z Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 Anthropogenic climate change is rapidly altering alpine ecosystems in Alaska. Trees and woody shrubs are expanding upslope and displacing alpine tundra. As alpine tundra habitats shrink and fragment, arthropods and other animals face an increased risk of extirpation due to smaller population sizes and reduced geneflow. Arthropods--insects, spiders, and their relatives--are the most speciose component of the alpine fauna and perform key ecosystem services, such as pollination and nutrient cycling, and are food for vertebrates. Many species have responded by shifting their distribution to higher elevations, but species respond to change idiosyncratically, which could alter species interactions and disrupt communities. I compared beetle and spider communities along an elevational gradient in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, an area with a complex biogeographic history and a poorly known arthropod fauna, in order to 1) examine differences in diversity, abundance, and community composition among forest, shrub, and alpine tundra habitats; 2) link the observed differences to abiotic factors relevant to climate change; and 3) test if shared habitat preferences lead to community-level patterns in geographic distribution. After three consecutive summers of sampling, I found that alpine tundra supports an unexpectedly diverse arthropod community with a high proportion of unique species and that vegetation cover and mean air temperature are strongly correlated with community composition. I therefore expect species losses among alpine tundra communities as shrubification continues. Community-level distribution patterns were not observed, but trends in the data point to a reduction of Holarctic distributions among forest-dwelling arthropods and an increased proportion of Beringian endemics among tundra species. This was the first systematic survey of Denali's terrestrial arthropods and added over 450 new park records. Alaska Entomological Society, Entomological ... Thesis Tundra Alaska University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
Beetles Alaska Denali National Park and Preserve Ecology Spiders Mountain ecology Tundra ecology Master of Science in Biological Sciences |
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Beetles Alaska Denali National Park and Preserve Ecology Spiders Mountain ecology Tundra ecology Master of Science in Biological Sciences Haberski, Adam Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska |
topic_facet |
Beetles Alaska Denali National Park and Preserve Ecology Spiders Mountain ecology Tundra ecology Master of Science in Biological Sciences |
description |
Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 Anthropogenic climate change is rapidly altering alpine ecosystems in Alaska. Trees and woody shrubs are expanding upslope and displacing alpine tundra. As alpine tundra habitats shrink and fragment, arthropods and other animals face an increased risk of extirpation due to smaller population sizes and reduced geneflow. Arthropods--insects, spiders, and their relatives--are the most speciose component of the alpine fauna and perform key ecosystem services, such as pollination and nutrient cycling, and are food for vertebrates. Many species have responded by shifting their distribution to higher elevations, but species respond to change idiosyncratically, which could alter species interactions and disrupt communities. I compared beetle and spider communities along an elevational gradient in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, an area with a complex biogeographic history and a poorly known arthropod fauna, in order to 1) examine differences in diversity, abundance, and community composition among forest, shrub, and alpine tundra habitats; 2) link the observed differences to abiotic factors relevant to climate change; and 3) test if shared habitat preferences lead to community-level patterns in geographic distribution. After three consecutive summers of sampling, I found that alpine tundra supports an unexpectedly diverse arthropod community with a high proportion of unique species and that vegetation cover and mean air temperature are strongly correlated with community composition. I therefore expect species losses among alpine tundra communities as shrubification continues. Community-level distribution patterns were not observed, but trends in the data point to a reduction of Holarctic distributions among forest-dwelling arthropods and an increased proportion of Beringian endemics among tundra species. This was the first systematic survey of Denali's terrestrial arthropods and added over 450 new park records. Alaska Entomological Society, Entomological ... |
author2 |
Sikes, Derek S. Hollingsworth, Teresa Armbruster, W. Scott |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Haberski, Adam |
author_facet |
Haberski, Adam |
author_sort |
Haberski, Adam |
title |
Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska |
title_short |
Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska |
title_full |
Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in Denali National Park, Alaska |
title_sort |
community composition and biogeography of beetles and spiders across an elevational gradient in denali national park, alaska |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12297 |
geographic |
Fairbanks |
geographic_facet |
Fairbanks |
genre |
Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Tundra Alaska |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12297 Department of Biology |
_version_ |
1766228719482961920 |