ub.xmlui.mirage2.page-structure.muninLogoub.xmlui.mirage2.page-structure.openResearchArchiveLogo
    • EnglishEnglish
    • norsknorsk
  • Velg spraakEnglish 
    • EnglishEnglish
    • norsknorsk
  • Administration/UB
View Item 
  •   Home
  • Fakultet for biovitenskap, fiskeri og økonomi
  • Institutt for arktisk og marin biologi
  • Artikler, rapporter og annet (arktisk og marin biologi)
  • View Item
  •   Home
  • Fakultet for biovitenskap, fiskeri og økonomi
  • Institutt for arktisk og marin biologi
  • Artikler, rapporter og annet (arktisk og marin biologi)
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Rough-legged buzzards, arctic foxes and red foxes in a tundra ecosystem without rodents

Permanent link
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/8652
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118740
Thumbnail
View/Open
article.pdf (2.148Mb)
(PDF)
Date
2015-02-18
Type
Journal article
Tidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed

Author
Pokrovsky, Ivan; Ehrich, Dorothee; Ims, Rolf Anker; Kondratyev, Alexander V.; Kruckenberg, Helmut; Kulikova, Olga; Mihnevich, Julia; Shienok, Alexander
Abstract
Small rodents with multi-annual population cycles strongly influence the dynamics of food webs, and in particular predator-prey interactions, across most of the tundra biome. Rodents are however absent from some arctic islands, and studies on performance of arctic predators under such circumstances may be very instructive since rodent cycles have been predicted to collapse in a warming Arctic. Here we document for the first time how three normally rodent-dependent predator species—rough-legged buzzard, arctic fox and red fox – perform in a low-arctic ecosystem with no rodents. During six years (in 2006-2008 and 2011-2013) we studied diet and breeding performance of these predators in the rodent-free Kolguev Island in Arctic Russia. The rough-legged buzzards, previously known to be a small rodent specialist, have only during the last two decades become established on Kolguev Island. The buzzards successfully breed on the island at stable low density, but with high productivity based on goslings and willow ptarmigan as their main prey – altogether representing a novel ecological situation for this species. Breeding density of arctic fox varied from year to year, but with stable productivity based on mainly geese as prey. The density dynamic of the arctic fox appeared to be correlated with the date of spring arrival of the geese. Red foxes breed regularly on the island but in very low numbers that appear to have been unchanged over a long period – a situation that resemble what has been recently documented from Arctic America. Our study suggests that the three predators found breeding on Kolguev Island possess capacities for shifting to changing circumstances in low-arctic ecosystem as long as other small - medium sized terrestrial herbivores are present in good numbers.
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
PLoS ONE 2015, 10(2): e0118740
Metadata
Show full item record
Collections
  • Artikler, rapporter og annet (arktisk og marin biologi) [1630]

Browse

Browse all of MuninCommunities & CollectionsAuthor listTitlesBy Issue DateBrowse this CollectionAuthor listTitlesBy Issue Date
Login

Statistics

View Usage Statistics
UiT

Munin is powered by DSpace

UiT The Arctic University of Norway
The University Library
uit.no/ub - munin@ub.uit.no

Accessibility statement (Norwegian only)