Spider Assemblages across Elevational and Latitudinal Gradients in the Yukon Territory, Canada

Bowden, Joseph J.; Buddle, Christopher M.

doi:10.14430/arctic1490

Cited by 32 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Changes in arthropod community composition along the elevation and vegetation gradient will likely reflect adaptation to dominant environmental conditions, such as ambient temperature and humidity. These observations are consistent with those described in tundra communities of plants, microbes and invertebrate communities (e.g., Bowden & Buddle, ; Høye et al., ; Rich, Gough, & Boelman, ; Sundqvist et al., ). In plots at low elevation, which are characterized by high humidity, we found many small taxa associated with soil, such as Collembola, as well as mesostigmatid and oribatid mites.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Changes in arthropod community composition along the elevation and vegetation gradient will likely reflect adaptation to dominant environmental conditions, such as ambient temperature and humidity. These observations are consistent with those described in tundra communities of plants, microbes and invertebrate communities (e.g., Bowden & Buddle, 2010;Høye et al, 2017;Rich, Gough, & Boelman, 2013;Sundqvist et al, 2011).…”

Section: Prey Community Available Vs Prey Community Usedsupporting

confidence: 91%

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Assessing changes in arthropod predator–prey interactions through DNA‐based gut content analysis—variable environment, stable diet

et al. 2018

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Analysing the structure and dynamics of biotic interaction networks and the processes shaping them is currently one of the key fields in ecology. In this paper, we develop a novel approach to gut content analysis, thereby deriving a new perspective on community interactions and their responses to environment. For this, we use an elevational gradient in the High Arctic, asking how the environment and species traits interact in shaping predator-prey interactions involving the wolf spider Pardosa glacialis. To characterize the community of potential prey available to this predator, we used pitfall trapping and vacuum sampling. To characterize the prey actually consumed, we applied molecular gut content analysis. Using joint species distribution models, we found elevation and vegetation mass to explain the most variance in the composition of the prey community locally available. However, such environmental variables had only a small effect on the prey community found in the spider's gut. These observations indicate that Pardosa exerts selective feeding on particular taxa irrespective of environmental constraints. By directly modelling the probability of predation based on gut content data, we found that neither trait matching in terms of predator and prey body size nor phylogenetic or environmental constraints modified interaction probability. Our results indicate that taxonomic identity may be more important for predator-prey interactions than environmental constraints or prey traits. The impact of environmental change on predator-prey interactions thus appears to be indirect and mediated by its imprint on the community of available prey.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Changes in arthropod community composition along the elevation and vegetation gradient will likely reflect adaptation to dominant environmental conditions, such as ambient temperature and humidity. These observations are consistent with those described in tundra communities of plants, microbes and invertebrate communities (e.g., Bowden & Buddle, 2010;Høye et al, 2017;Rich, Gough, & Boelman, 2013;Sundqvist et al, 2011).…”

Section: Prey Community Available Vs Prey Community Usedsupporting

confidence: 91%

Assessing changes in arthropod predator–prey interactions through DNA‐based gut content analysis—variable environment, stable diet

et al. 2018

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“…Arctic arthropod abundance and activity are influenced by vascular plant cover via several means including protection by the canopy and timing of snow melt (Danks 1992, 2004, Høye and Forchhammer 2008, Bowden and Buddle 2010). In addition, variation in relative ground cover of mosses, lichens, and litter creates different habitats and resource availability among our study areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic arthropod assemblages in habitats of differing shrub dominance

Rich¹,

Gough²,

Boelman³

2013

Ecography

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Recent climate warming in the Arctic has caused advancement in the timing of snowmelt and expansion of shrubs into open tundra. Such an altered climate may directly and indirectly (via effects on vegetation) affect arctic arthropod abundance, diversity and assemblage taxonomic composition. To allow better predictions about how climate changes may affect these organisms, we compared arthropod assemblages between open and shrub‐dominated tundra at three field sites in northern Alaska that encompass a range of shrub communities. Over ten weeks of sampling in 2011, pitfall traps captured significantly more arthropods in shrub plots than open tundra plots at two of the three sites. Furthermore, taxonomic richness and diversity were significantly greater in shrub plots than open tundra plots, although this pattern was site‐specific as well. Patterns of abundance within the five most abundant arthropod orders differed, with spiders (Order: Araneae) more abundant in open tundra habitats and true bugs (Order: Hemiptera), flies (Order: Diptera), and wasps and bees (Order: Hymenoptera) more abundant in shrub‐dominated habitats. Few strong relationships were found between vegetation and environmental variables and arthropod abundance; however, lichen cover seemed to be important for the overall abundance of arthropods. Some arthropod orders showed significant relationships with other vegetation variables, including maximum shrub height (Coleoptera) and foliar canopy cover (Diptera). As climate warming continues over the coming decades, and with further shrub expansion likely to occur, changes in arthropod abundance, richness, and diversity associated with shrub‐dominated habitat may have important ecological effects on arctic food webs since arthropods play important ecological roles in the tundra, including in decomposition and trophic interactions.

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“…Transplant experiments could help to determine the degree to which these factors influence SSD within and among species across gradients and, for example, our finding that males and females of P. uintana exhibited the same response in body size to changes in elevation. Due to the low sample sizes of A. aculeata females, it is difficult to infer size changes and patterns of SSD in this species, but this is one of the only species that displays significant increases in abundance with elevation in the region (Bowden and Buddle 2010a). One explanation for the differences in SSD between the genera is that phylogenetic differences among taxa affect the expression of SSD, (Prenter et al 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Samples from each elevation on each transect on a mountain were treated as the unit of observation. Additional details about the pitfall trap methods, site descriptions (including map of the region), and community patterns are in Bowden and Buddle (2010a).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fecundity and sexual size dimorphism of wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) along an elevational gradient in the Arctic

2013

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Fecundity and body size are central fitnessrelated traits, and their intra-specific responses to environmental variation are receiving increasing attention in the context of climate change. Recent results from Greenland indicate that temporal and spatial variation in body size differences between sexes (sexual size dimorphism) may be widespread among wolf spider species and could be related to climate. Here, we tested whether variation in elevation affected body size of three wolf spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) species in low-Arctic Canada, whether the sexes differed in their response to the cline, and whether changes in local density influenced this relationship. We also tested whether fecundity changed with elevation in two of the species, independent of body size variation. We found a significant sex-elevation interaction for Pardosa lapponica: female size decreased more in response to elevation than that of males. Males and females of Pardosa uintana decreased significantly in size with elevation at a similar rate. Alopecosa aculeata males increased in body size along the gradient while females did not. Pardosa lapponica females, but not P. uintana females, showed significant reduction in fecundity in response to elevation. P. uintana showed significant decreases in body size with increases in its population density. Changes in temperature and potential resource availability along the elevational gradient are probably causing these species-and sex-specific responses. Further summer warming of the region may alleviate current constraints on growth and reproduction of these species although sex-specific responses may affect their population dynamics.

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Spider Assemblages across Elevational and Latitudinal Gradients in the Yukon Territory, Canada

Cited by 32 publications

References 57 publications

Assessing changes in arthropod predator–prey interactions through DNA‐based gut content analysis—variable environment, stable diet

Assessing changes in arthropod predator–prey interactions through DNA‐based gut content analysis—variable environment, stable diet

Arctic arthropod assemblages in habitats of differing shrub dominance

Fecundity and sexual size dimorphism of wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) along an elevational gradient in the Arctic

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