Predator home range size mediates indirect interactions between prey species in an arctic vertebrate community

Dulude‐de Broin, Frédéric; Clermont, Jeanne; Beardsell, Andréanne; Ouellet, Louis‐Pierre; Legagneux, Pierre; Bêty, Joël; Berteaux, Dominique

doi:10.1111/1365-2656.14017

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 113 publications

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“…We showed that predation level on bird nests is the outcome of a complex interaction between temporal fluctuations in lemming populations and spatial variation due to the presence of a large goose colony because both of these factors affect the reproduction, hunting behavior and spatial distribution of foxes (Giroux et al, 2012;Chevallier et al, 2020;Beardsell et al, 2022). Consequently, predation risk for shorebird nests increases when lemming abundance decreases as well as inside the goose colony (Lamarre et al, 2017;Dulude-de Broin et al, 2023), which may ultimately affect the persistence of local shorebird populations (Beardsell et al,…”

Section: Key Scientific Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific contributions and lessons learned from 30 years of ecological monitoring of the Bylot Island tundra ecosystem

Gauthier,

Berteaux,

Bêty

et al. 2024

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The Arctic tundra has a relatively low biodiversity but species living there have unique adaptations and are exposed to unprecedented rates of climate warming. Monitoring changes in Arctic biodiversity and identifying the driving forces is thus a pressing issue. Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic has one of the longest and most comprehensive monitoring programs of the tundra food web, spanning four decades. We provide a historical overview of ecological studies on Bylot Island, summarize their key scientific contributions, show their impacts, and present the ingredients for the success of the program and the main challenges encountered. Some major contributions include demonstrating the key role of predation in structuring the tundra food web, the importance of exchanges between ecosystems for the persistence of top predators and their cascading effects on trophic interactions, the apparent resistance of the vertebrate biota to climate warming, the need to consider multiple hypotheses to explain northward range expansion of species and the benefits of integrating scientific data and local knowledge into ecological monitoring. The program has produced >250 journal articles and >80 graduate student theses, which generated >7,700 citations in the scientific literature. A high proportion (65%) of the articles had more citations than comparable publications in their field. The longevity and success of the program can be attributed to several factors, including a researcher-driven (i.e. bottom-up) approach to design the monitoring; long-term commitment of a small number of dedicated researchers and the strong participation of graduate students; the adoption of a food web rather than a single species perspective; extensive presence in the field; the combination of several methodological approaches; and the use of multiple spatial scales adapted to research questions of interest. Challenges encountered include funding issues, transfer of expertise over time, limited spatial replication, statistical design and maintaining partnerships. Robust monitoring is essential to provide sound baseline to detect future changes, and lessons learned from our program could improve future monitoring schemes in the Arctic. Paradoxically, we believe that ecological monitoring on Bylot Island has been successful in large part because it was not originally designed as a monitoring program per se.

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Section: Key Scientific Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific contributions and lessons learned from 30 years of ecological monitoring of the Bylot Island tundra ecosystem

Gauthier,

Berteaux,

Bêty

et al. 2024

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Territoriality and resource availability modulate the effect of conspecific encounters on the foraging behaviours of a mammalian predator

Clermont,

Dulude-de Broin,

Poulin

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The probability of encountering conspecifics shapes multiple dimensions of animal behaviour. For example, territorial individuals increase vigilance, scent marking and alarm calling when approaching home range boundaries. Whether territorial predators modify their foraging behaviours with respect to the probability of encountering neighbouring territory owners is poorly understood. However, this could strongly influence the landscape of predation risk and therefore modulate predator-prey interactions. We studied the movements and behaviours of 23 resident Arctic foxes occupying neighbouring home ranges during two years of contrasting resource availability (abundant resources in 2019, scarce resources in 2022) on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada. First, based on simultaneous GPS tracking of individuals, we established which individuals used a territory (an exclusive area) by estimating the spatial distribution of the probability of encountering a neighbour within their home range. Second, using GPS and accelerometry data to identify prey searching and caching events, we evaluated if the probability of encountering a neighbour influenced the spatial distribution of foraging behaviours, and whether this relationship differed between territorial and non-territorial individuals. In 2019, when resources were abundant, only breeding individuals excluded other foxes from a part of their home range and could thus be considered territorial. In 2022, when resources were rare, none of the foxes reproduced and all but one were territorial. Non-territorial individuals in 2019 were less active in areas with a high probability of encounter, suggesting they searched prey less intensively and engaged in more vigilance in these areas. They were also less likely to cache prey in areas with a high probability of encounter, possibly reducing the risk of cache pilfering. We found no effect of the probability of encounter on the behaviours of the non-territorial individual in 2022. Territorial individuals in 2019 and 2022 were on the contrary more likely to be active in areas with a high probability of encounter. Yet, their probability to cache prey did not depend on the probability of encountering a neighbour, suggesting the increase in activity near borders may be related to an increase in territory patrolling rather than in prey searching. Our results suggest that Arctic foxes use different tactics to secure resources based on their degree of territoriality and the availability of resources. We highlight how the presence of resident, but non-territorial predators, whose home ranges overlap those of their territorial neighbours, may influence the distribution of predation risk by creating zones where predator density is high, potentially influencing predator-prey interactions.

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Predator home range size mediates indirect interactions between prey species in an arctic vertebrate community

Dulude‐de Broin,

Clermont,

Beardsell

et al. 2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Indirect interactions are widespread among prey species that share a common predator, but the underlying mechanisms driving these interactions are often unclear, and our ability to predict their outcome is limited. Changes in behavioural traits that impact predator space use could be a key proximal mechanism mediating indirect interactions, but there is little empirical evidence of the causes and consequences of such behavioural‐numerical response in multispecies systems. Here, we investigate the complex ecological relationships between seven prey species sharing a common predator. We used a path analysis approach on a comprehensive 9‐year data set simultaneously tracking predator space use, prey densities and prey mortality rate on key species of a simplified Arctic food web. We show that high availability of a clumped and spatially predictable prey (goose eggs) leads to a twofold reduction in predator (arctic fox) home range size, which increases local predator density and strongly decreases nest survival of an incidental prey (American golden plover). On the contrary, a scattered cyclic prey with potentially lower spatial predictability (lemming) had a weaker effect on fox space use and an overall positive impact on the survival of incidental prey. These contrasting effects underline the importance of studying behavioural responses of predators in multiprey systems and to explicitly integrate behavioural‐numerical responses in multispecies predator–prey models.

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Predator home range size mediates indirect interactions between prey species in an arctic vertebrate community

Cited by 4 publications

References 113 publications

Scientific contributions and lessons learned from 30 years of ecological monitoring of the Bylot Island tundra ecosystem

Scientific contributions and lessons learned from 30 years of ecological monitoring of the Bylot Island tundra ecosystem

Territoriality and resource availability modulate the effect of conspecific encounters on the foraging behaviours of a mammalian predator

Predator home range size mediates indirect interactions between prey species in an arctic vertebrate community

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