Thirteen Years of Shifting Top-Down and Bottom-Up Control

Meserve, Peter L.; Kelt, Douglas A.; Milstead, W. Bryan; Gutiérrez, Julio R.

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0633:tyosta]2.0.co;2

Cited by 251 publications

(272 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…These surveys have been conducted within an experimental study including plots from which degus have been excluded, and control plots that allowed full access by degus. Degus are one of the larger and more abundant folivores in semiarid Chile and may have a key role in top-down regulation of plants during wet periods, when their populations may increase up to 30-fold (Meserve et al 2003). Here we evaluate whether this generalist herbivore influences the expansion of exotic annual plants in semiarid Chile.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom-up control of consumers leads to top-down indirect facilitation of invasive annual herbs in semiarid Chile

Madrigal

Kelt

Meserve

et al. 2011

Ecology

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Abstract. The abundance of exotic plants is thought to be limited by competition with resident species (including plants and generalist herbivores). In contrast, observations in semiarid Chile suggest that a native generalist rodent, the degu (Octodon degus), may be facilitating the expansion of exotic annual plants. We tested this hypothesis with a 20-year data set from a World Biosphere Reserve in mediterranean Chile. In this semiarid environment, rainfall varies annually and dramatically influences cover by both native and exotic annual plants; degu population density affects the composition and cover of exotic and native annual plants. In low-rainfall years, cover of both native and exotic herbs is extremely low. Higher levels of precipitation result in proportional increases in cover of all annual plants (exotic and native species), leading in turn to increases in degu population densities, at which point they impact native herbs in proportion to their greater cover, indirectly favoring the expansion of exotic plants. We propose that bottom-up control of consumers at our site results in top-down indirect facilitation of invasive annual herbs, and that this pattern may be general to other semiarid ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom-up control of consumers leads to top-down indirect facilitation of invasive annual herbs in semiarid Chile

Madrigal

Kelt

Meserve

et al. 2011

Ecology

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“…Since the late 1970s, Peter Meserve, Fabian Jaksic, Julio Gutiérrez, Douglas Kelt and others [9,24,89,90] The location is impacted by El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events every 5-7 years, allowing Meserve and colleagues to determine how dramatic, periodic fluctuations in rainfall influence both population [91] and community structure [9,24,90]. ENSO-related rainfall in western South America leads to a complex set of biotic responses involving bottom-up and top-down processes [89].…”

Section: Community Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ENSO-related rainfall in western South America leads to a complex set of biotic responses involving bottom-up and top-down processes [89]. Bottom-up regulation involves vegetation and seed blooms, followed by small rodent increases, which lead to predator increases [89,[92][93][94].…”

Section: Community Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecological value of long-term studies of birds and mammals in Central America, South America and Antarctica

Taig-Johnston

Strom

Nowak

et al. 2017

Rev. Chil. de Hist. Nat.

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This review covers long-term ecological studies in Central America, South America, and Antarctica that include at least 10 years of data on both terrestrial and marine mammals as well as birds. Specifically, we compiled long-term research on social systems, population ecology, and community ecology. Long-term research is necessary to understand decadal trends and dynamics that would otherwise go unnoticed in short-term studies. This review highlights the impact of ecological conditions as well as territoriality and conflict on social organization and structure, the role that environmental perturbations and climate change have on populations, and how interaction between biotic and abiotic factors influence entire ecological communities. It especially highlights the need for additional long-term studies to assess climate change trends and the ecological changes that will follow.

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“…The park's long-term ecological research program dates from 1989 and has focused principally around the question of determining the abiotic and biotic factors that regulate the abundance of small mammals, vertebrate predators, and plants and their trophic connections. 47 This goal has been accomplished by one of the world's longest and largest vertebrate exclusion experiments. Furthermore, given the longevity of the project, it has been possible to distinguish three complete cycles of El Niño Southern Oscillation, which have determined pronounced oscillations in rainfall, and consequently annual changes in plant cover and productivity of desert vegetation.…”

Section: Chile's Nascent Long-term Socio-ecological Research Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Science and Society through Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research

Anderson¹,

Likens²,

Rozzi³

et al. 2008

Environmental Ethics

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Thirteen Years of Shifting Top-Down and Bottom-Up Control

Cited by 251 publications

References 48 publications

Bottom-up control of consumers leads to top-down indirect facilitation of invasive annual herbs in semiarid Chile

Bottom-up control of consumers leads to top-down indirect facilitation of invasive annual herbs in semiarid Chile

The ecological value of long-term studies of birds and mammals in Central America, South America and Antarctica

Integrating Science and Society through Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research

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