Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains
Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one important...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Zenodo
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 |
id |
ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:7258242 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:7258242 2024-09-15T18:39:41+00:00 Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains Zvereva, Elena Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail 2023-01-06 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 unknown Zenodo https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 oai:zenodo.org:7258242 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode elevation gradient insect herbivory Open-top chambers Specific leaf area woody plants info:eu-repo/semantics/other 2023 ftzenodo https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 2024-07-26T12:43:50Z Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one important source of this variation, but the acute shortage of data from polar mountains hampers exploration of latitude effects on elevational changes in herbivory. Here, we reduce this knowledge gap by testing the prediction that a decrease in herbivory occurs with increasing elevation from forest to alpine tundra. We examined six elevation gradients located in three Arctic mountain ranges. Across the ten most abundant evergreen and deciduous woody plant species, relative losses of foliage to insect herbivores were 2.2-fold greater at the highest elevations (alpine tundra) than in mid-elevation birch woodlands or low elevation coniferous forests. Plant quality for herbivores (quantified by specific leaf area) significantly decreased with elevation across all studied species, indicating that bottom-up factors were unlikely to shape the observed pattern in herbivory. An experiment with open-top chambers established at different elevations showed that even a slight increase in ambient temperature enhances herbivory in Arctic mountains. Therefore, we suggest that the discovered increase in herbivory with elevation is explained by higher temperatures at the soil surface in open habitats above the treeline compared with forests at lower elevations. This explanation is supported by the significant difference in elevational changes in herbivory between low and tall plants: herbivory on low shrubs increased 4-fold from forest to alpine sites, while herbivory on trees and tall shrubs did not change with elevation. We suggest that an increase in herbivory with an increase in elevation is typical for high-latitude mountains, where inverse temperature gradients, especially at the soil surface, are common. Verification of this hypothesis ... Other/Unknown Material Tundra Zenodo |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Zenodo |
op_collection_id |
ftzenodo |
language |
unknown |
topic |
elevation gradient insect herbivory Open-top chambers Specific leaf area woody plants |
spellingShingle |
elevation gradient insect herbivory Open-top chambers Specific leaf area woody plants Zvereva, Elena Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
topic_facet |
elevation gradient insect herbivory Open-top chambers Specific leaf area woody plants |
description |
Current theory holds that the intensity of biotic interactions decreases with increases in latitude and elevation; however, empirical data demonstrate great variation in the direction, strength and shape of elevational changes in herbivory. The latitudinal position of mountains may be one important source of this variation, but the acute shortage of data from polar mountains hampers exploration of latitude effects on elevational changes in herbivory. Here, we reduce this knowledge gap by testing the prediction that a decrease in herbivory occurs with increasing elevation from forest to alpine tundra. We examined six elevation gradients located in three Arctic mountain ranges. Across the ten most abundant evergreen and deciduous woody plant species, relative losses of foliage to insect herbivores were 2.2-fold greater at the highest elevations (alpine tundra) than in mid-elevation birch woodlands or low elevation coniferous forests. Plant quality for herbivores (quantified by specific leaf area) significantly decreased with elevation across all studied species, indicating that bottom-up factors were unlikely to shape the observed pattern in herbivory. An experiment with open-top chambers established at different elevations showed that even a slight increase in ambient temperature enhances herbivory in Arctic mountains. Therefore, we suggest that the discovered increase in herbivory with elevation is explained by higher temperatures at the soil surface in open habitats above the treeline compared with forests at lower elevations. This explanation is supported by the significant difference in elevational changes in herbivory between low and tall plants: herbivory on low shrubs increased 4-fold from forest to alpine sites, while herbivory on trees and tall shrubs did not change with elevation. We suggest that an increase in herbivory with an increase in elevation is typical for high-latitude mountains, where inverse temperature gradients, especially at the soil surface, are common. Verification of this hypothesis ... |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Zvereva, Elena Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail |
author_facet |
Zvereva, Elena Zverev, Vitali Kozlov, Mikhail |
author_sort |
Zvereva, Elena |
title |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_short |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_full |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_fullStr |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_full_unstemmed |
Insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in Arctic mountains |
title_sort |
insect herbivory increases from forest to alpine tundra in arctic mountains |
publisher |
Zenodo |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 |
genre |
Tundra |
genre_facet |
Tundra |
op_relation |
https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 oai:zenodo.org:7258242 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxpw6 |
_version_ |
1810484040642330624 |