Large herbivore diversity slows sea ice-associated decline in arctic tundra diversity

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Post, Eric; Kaarlejarvi, Elina; Macias-Fauria, Marc; Watts, David A.; Boving, Pernille Sporon; Cahoon, Sean M. P.; Higgins, R. Conor; John, Christian; Kerby, Jeffrey T.; Pedersen, Christian; Post, Mason; Sullivan, Patrick F.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Davis; University of Helsinki; University of Oxford; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); United States Forest Service; Aarhus University; Aarhus University; Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; University of Alaska System; University of Alaska Anchorage; University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-12102
• DOI: 10.1126/science.add2679
• 发表日期: 2023-06-23
• 页码: 1282-1286
• 关键词: climate-change; biodiversity; CONSEQUENCES; muskoxen; GROWTH; SPACE

摘要

Biodiversity is declining globally in response to multiple human stressors, including climate forcing. Nonetheless, local diversity trends are inconsistent in some taxa, obscuring contributions of local processes to global patterns. Arctic tundra diversity, including plants, fungi, and lichens, declined during a 15-year experiment that combined warming with exclusion of large herbivores known to influence tundra vegetation composition. Tundra diversity declined regardless of experimental treatment, as background growing season temperatures rose with sea ice loss. However, diversity declined slower with large herbivores than without them. This difference was associated with an increase in effective diversity of large herbivores as formerly abundant caribou declined and muskoxen increased. Efforts that promote herbivore diversity, such as rewilding, may help mitigate impacts of warming on tundra diversity.