Ecosystem consequences of wolf behavioural response to climate

Eric Post (), Rolf O. Peterson, Nils Chr. Stenseth and Brian E. McLaren
Additional contact information
Eric Post: University of Oslo
Rolf O. Peterson: School of Forestry and Wood Products, Michigan Technological University
Nils Chr. Stenseth: University of Oslo
Brian E. McLaren: Department of Forest Resources, Wildlife Division

Nature, 1999, vol. 401, issue 6756, 905-907

Abstract: Abstract Because apex predators exert considerable influence on the structure and function of top-down ecosystems1,2,3, their responses to climate may shape responses at lower trophic levels4. Previous reports of trophic cascades and ecosystem dynamics induced by predators have focused on changes in their abundance5,6,7,8, whereas we investigated whether changes in predator behaviour could precipitate cascades of similar ecological scale. Here we report the ecological consequences of predator behavioural response to global climatic variation using 40 years of data on wolf predation from Isle Royale, USA, where wolves limit abundance of moose9, which limit productivity of fir trees10. In response to increases in winter snow related to the North Atlantic Oscillation, wolves hunted in larger packs and, consequently, tripled the number of moose killed per day compared with less snowy years when they hunted in smaller packs. Following increased predation rates, moose abundance declined, and, following release from heavy browsing, growth of understory fir increased. Hence, cascading behavioural responses of apex predators may be a substantial link in the pathway from climatic change to ecosystem function.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/44814 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:401:y:1999:i:6756:d:10.1038_44814

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/44814

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().