Overexploitation of natural resources is often viewed as a problem characteristic of only the human species. However, any species could evolve a capacity to overexploit its essential resources through natural selection and competition, even to the point of resource collapse. Here, we describe the processes that potentially lead to overexploitation and synthesize what is known about overexploitation ...

Sympatric Arctic charr, <i>Salvelinus alpinus</i> (L. 1758), morphs have flexible but repeated life history strategies tested across five Norwegian lakes. In several Scandinavian polymorphic Arctic charr populations differentiated by their diet and habitat use, a large littoral omnivorous (LO) morph commonly cooccurs with a smaller profundal spawning (PB/PZ) morph. A third, large piscivorous (PP) ...

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic ...

Rapid Arctic warming, manifested as thawing permafrost, loss of coastal sea ice, sea level rise, and climate-related extreme events, is particularly challenging for Indigenous people relying on wild food to sustain their livelihood and culture. The adoption of new technologies could provide specific capabilities to confront vulnerabilities associated with fishing and hunting activities, but it could ...

<ol> <li>Free-living parasite life stages may contribute substantially to ecosystem biomass and thus represent a significant source of energy flow when consumed by non-host organisms. However, ambient temperature and the predator's own infection status may modulate consumption rates towards parasite prey.</li> <li>We investigated the combined effects of temperature and predator infection status ...

Environmental change and increasing levels of human activity are threats to marine mam- mals in the Arctic. Identifying marine mammal hot - spots and areas of high species richness are essential to help guide management and conservation efforts. Herein, space use based on biotelemetric tracking devices deployed on 13 species (ringed seal <i>Pusa hispida</i>, bearded seal <i>Erignathus ...

Introductions and invasions of non-native species alter nutrient cycling and trophic dynamics resulting in significant ecological disturbance. Stable isotope data were used to test for evidence of invader-induced trophic niche differences in a north Norwegian lake system differentially dominated by native European whitefish (<i>Coregonus lavaretus</i>) morphotypes and invasive vendace (<i>Coregonus ...

Fungi are highly important biotic components of terrestrial ecosystems, but we still have a very limited understanding about their diversity and distribution. This data article releases a global soil fungal dataset of the Global Soil Mycobiome consortium (GSMc) to boost further research in fungal diversity, biogeography and macroecology. The dataset comprises 722,682 fungal operational taxonomic ...

Plant–visitor food webs provide important insights into species interactions, and more information about their seasonal dynamics is vital to understanding the resilience of species to external pressures. Studies of Arctic networks can also improve our understanding of species responses to the pressures of climate change. This study provides the first description of a plant – insect visitor network ...

The diel vertical migration (DVM) of zooplankton is one of the largest species migrations to occur globally and is a key driver of regional ecosystems and the marine carbon pump. The dramatic changes in the Arctic environment in recent years, mainly associated with sea-ice decline, may have wide significance for the Arctic shelf ecosystems including DVM. Observations have revealed the occurrence of ...