Title: Ornithogenic alteration of a tundra ecosystem from decades of intense herbivory and dense nesting
Citation: Kellett, Dana; Kellett, Dana; Alisauskas, Ray (2024). Ornithogenic alteration of a tundra ecosystem from decades of intense herbivory and dense nesting [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn0
Study Site: Karrak Lake, Nunavut
Purpose: Migratory animals can serve as ecological links between geographically distant ecosystems. Moreover, when seasonally linked ecosystems differ in carrying capacity of migrant species, those with high capacity may support population growth with consequences to shared ecosystems with lower capacity through trophic cascades. Agricultural production has increased carrying capacity of lesser snow (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) and Ross’s geese (Anser rossii, collectively, ‘light geese’) in southern agricultural landscapes where these species winter and stage during migration to and from northern breeding areas, resulting in population increase. In subarctic and arctic ecosystems where carrying capacity for geese is lower, high abundance and densities of light geese have caused trophic cascades during summer breeding. This has raised concern for resilience of northern ecosystems to withstand cumulative and intense pressures of above- and below-ground herbivory and nest construction. We investigated the empirical relationship between intensity of vegetation disturbance by multidecadal foraging and nest construction by up to ~1.3 million geese and shifts in (i) plant community composition and (ii) taxon richness of freshwater plant communities near Karrak Lake, in Canada’s central arctic.
Abstract: Vegetation data collected at Karrak Lake, Nunavut over three years: 1998, 2014, and 2017. We have submitted two data files: 'MARK_multistate.xlsx' is an input file for the software MARK for a multistate analysis investing habitat change on sample plots between 1998 and 2014, and 'all17GwElev_from_R_2020_01_13.xlsx' contains point intersect vegetation data analysed in R.
Supplemental Information Summary:
Research:
Further Info:
Status: Complete
Keywords:
vegetation,
effects of disturbance,
wildlife,
Geographical coordinates: North: 67.15, South: 67.15 East: -100.13 West: -100.13
Bounding Temporal Extent: Start Date: 1998-01-01, End
Date: 2017-12-31
