Europe-Wide Dampening of Population Cycles in Keystone Herbivores

Sammanfattning

Suggestions of collapse in small herbivore cycles since the 1980s have raised concerns about the loss of essential ecosystem functions. Whether such phenomena are general and result from extrinsic environmental changes or from intrinsic process stochasticity is currently unknown. Using a large compilation of time series of vole abundances, we demonstrate consistent cycle amplitude dampening associated with a reduction in winter population growth, although regulatory processes responsible for cyclicity have not been lost. The underlying syndrome of change throughout Europe and grass-eating vole species suggests a common climatic driver. Increasing intervals of low-amplitude small herbivore population fluctuations are expected in the future, and these may have cascading impacts on trophic webs across ecosystems.

Publicerad i

Science
2013, volym: 340, nummer: 6128, sidor: 63-66
Utgivare: AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

SLU författare

• Ecke, Frauke

  • Institutionen för vilt, fisk och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    
  • Institutionen för vatten och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Hörnfeldt, Birger

  • Institutionen för vilt, fisk och miljö, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG15 Ekosystem och biologisk mångfald

UKÄ forskningsämne

Ekologi

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1228992

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/55988