Timing is everything: seasonality and phenological dynamics linking species, communities, and trophic feedbacks in the Low- vs. High Arctic

AbstractThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009（Public Law 111-5）.对北极气候变化和季节性的生态后果进行大规模调查对于提高我们对北极作为一个系统的理解至关重要。然而，由于缺乏对相互关联的生物成分的这种变化的反应的研究，这种理解将继续回避我们。这是一个全面的调查，在两个迅速变暖的地点，在低和高北极，以满足这一需求的季节性变化的生态反应。这项工作将季节性变化与物种的物候动态，物种动态与群落的物候动态，以及群落动态与跨营养水平的物种相互作用联系起来。与全球气候变化相关的非生物变化正在北极迅速发生，其速度，幅度和空间变化的文件已得到前所未有的关注。对观察到的这种非生物变化的生物和生态后果的记录，相对而言较少受到注意，但最常见的观察结果之一是植物物种和功能群体对变暖的不同反应。这些观察结果表明，社区和物种间变暖的后果可能是整个北极地区对变暖的生态反应的一个共同方面。这项工作将比较植物物种内部和之间、植物和食草动物（驯鹿和麝牛）之间的营养水平以及低北极和高北极之间的空间和时间对季节性变化的生态反应率。本研究将综合并继续收集来自西格陵兰Kangerlussuaq和格陵兰东北部Zackenberg的长期空间复制数据，以解决北极季节性变化的生态响应的四个方面：I。在不同的植物物种之间，以及在北极的低纬度和高纬度之间，气候变化对北极季节性变化的反应是如何变化的？二.食草动物活动的时间是如何通过时间和空间，以及在低北极和高北极之间的季节性变化作出反应的？三.季节性变化如何改变植物和食草动物物候之间的相互作用？四.观察到的变化的大规模和近端驱动因素是什么，它们在低北极和高北极之间有什么不同？该小组将使用8年的空间复制数据的物候动态的31种植物从Kangerlussuaq，和13年的空间复制数据的物候动态的6种植物在Zackenberg，除了8和13年的每日和每周观察驯鹿在Kangerlussuaq和麝牛在这两个网站。

AbstractThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Broad-scale investigations of the ecological consequences of changing climate and seasonality in the Arctic are imperative to improving our understanding the Arctic as a system. This understanding will, however, continue to elude us in the absence of studies of the responses to such changes of inter-connected biological components. This is a comprehensive investigation of ecological responses to changing seasonality at two rapidly warming sites in the Low- and High Arctic to address this need. This work links changing seasonality with the phenological dynamics of species, species dynamics with the phenological dynamics of communities, and community dynamics with species interactions across trophic levels. Abiotic changes associated with global climate change are occurring rapidly in the Arctic, and documentation of their rates, magnitudes, and spatial variation has received unparalleled focus. The documentation of observed biological and ecological consequences of such abiotic changes has received comparatively less attention, but one of the most common observations has been that of differential responses to warming among plant species and functional groups. These observations suggest that community- and inter-species level consequences of warming may be a common aspect of ecological response to warming throughout the Arctic. This effort will make a comparison of ecological rates of response to changing seasonality within and across plant species, across trophic levels between plants and herbivores (caribou and muskoxen), and through space and time within and between the Low- and High Arctic. This research will synthesize and continue the collection of long-term, spatially replicated data from Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland, and Zackenberg, Northeast Greenland, to address four aspects of ecological response to changing seasonality in the Arctic:I. How do rates of phenological change in response to changing seasonality in the Arctic vary among plant species, and between the Low- and High Arctic?II. How does the timing of herbivore activity respond to changing seasonality through time and space, and between the Low- and High Arctic?III. How does changing seasonality alter reciprocal interactions between the phenology of plants and herbivores?IV. What are the large-scale and proximal drivers of the observed changes, and do they differ between the Low- and High Arctic?This team will use 8 years of spatially-replicated data on the phenological dynamics of 31 plant species from Kangerlussuaq, and 13 years of spatially-replicated data on the phenological dynamics of 6 plant species at Zackenberg, in addition to 8 and 13 years of daily and weekly observations of caribou at Kangerlussuaq and muskoxen at both sites.