| Title: | High resistance towards herbivore-induced habitat change in a high Arctic arthropod community |
| Author(s): | Schmidt NM; Mosbacher JB; Eitzinger B; Vesterinen EJ; Roslin T; |
| Address: | "Arctic Research Centre, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark nms@bios.au.dk. Arctic Research Centre, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark. Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014, Finland. Biodiversity Unit, University of Turku, 20014, Finland. Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1744-957X (Electronic) 1744-9561 (Print) 1744-9561 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Mammal herbivores may exert strong impacts on plant communities, and are often key drivers of vegetation composition and diversity. We tested whether such mammal-induced changes to a high Arctic plant community are reflected in the structure of other trophic levels. Specifically, we tested whether substantial vegetation changes following the experimental exclusion of muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) altered the composition of the arthropod community and the predator-prey interactions therein. Overall, we found no impact of muskox exclusion on the arthropod community: the diversity and abundance of both arthropod predators (spiders) and of their prey were unaffected by muskox presence, and so was the qualitative and quantitative structure of predator-prey interactions. Hence, high Arctic arthropod communities seem highly resistant towards even large biotic changes in their habitat, which we attribute to the high connectance in the food web" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Arctic Regions Arthropods Biodiversity DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic *Ecosystem Food Chain Greenland Herbivory *Predatory Behavior Ruminants Spiders/*physiology Araneae metabarcoding molecular diet analysis predator-prey;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineSchmidt, Niels M Mosbacher, Jesper B Eitzinger, Bernhard Vesterinen, Eero J Roslin, Tomas eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2018/05/11 Biol Lett. 2018 May; 14(5):20180054. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0054" |
