Functional Changes to the Slate Islands Provincial Park Ecosystem with Successive Arrival of Wolves, Canis lupus, from the Lake Superior Coast

Bergerud, Arthur T.; McLaren, Brian; Dalton, William; Camps, Lo; Butler, H. Lee; Ferguson, Rodger S.

doi:10.22621/cfn.v134i4.1964

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This range loss has resulted in isolated populations on the trailing range edge that have managed to persist along the coast and on nearshore islands of Lake Superior (Figure 1), over 150 km south of the continuous range edge (Figure 2; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2009; Schaefer, 2003). The recent history (1900s‐present) of caribou along Lake Superior is well documented (e.g., Bergerud, 1985, 2001; Bergerud et al, 2007, 2014; Carr et al, 2012; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, 2018; Patterson et al, 2014); however, their deeper evolutionary history remains unclear. A recent microsatellite study suggested some genetic structure within the region and detected low levels of gene flow between Lake Superior caribou from Pukaskwa National Park and caribou farther north in the continuous range (Drake et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic population structure and inbreeding history of Lake Superior caribou

Solmundson

Bowman

Manseau

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) have experienced dramatic declines in both range and population size across Canada over the past century. Boreal caribou (R. t. caribou), 1 of the 12 Designatable Units, has lost approximately half of its historic range in the last 150 years, particularly along the southern edge of its distribution. Despite this overall northward contraction, some populations have persisted at the trailing range edge, over 150 km south of the continuous boreal caribou range in Ontario, along the coast and nearshore islands of Lake Superior. The population history of caribou along Lake Superior remains unclear. It appears that these caribou likely represent a remnant distribution at the trailing edge of the receding population of boreal caribou, but they may also exhibit local adaptation to the coastal environment. A better understanding of the population structure and history of caribou along Lake Superior is important for their conservation and management. Here, we use high-coverage whole genomes (N = 20) from boreal, eastern migratory, and barren-ground caribou sampled in Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec to investigate population structure and inbreeding histories. We discovered that caribou from the Lake Superior range form a distinct group but also found some evidence of gene flow with the continuous boreal caribou range. Notably, caribou along Lake Superior demonstrated relatively high levels of inbreeding (measured as runs of homozygosity; ROH) and genetic drift, which may contribute to the differentiation observed between ranges. Despite inbreeding, caribou along Lake Superior retained high heterozygosity, particularly in genomic regions without ROH. These results suggest that they present distinct genomic characteristics but also some level of gene flow with the continuous range. Our study provides key insights into the genomics of the southernmost range of caribou in Ontario, beginning to unravel the evolutionary history of these small, isolated caribou populations.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic population structure and inbreeding history of Lake Superior caribou

Solmundson

Bowman

Manseau

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, beavers in Kostrama, Russia, where wolves and brown bears were abundant, foraged closer to water than beavers in a predator-free system in Germany [39]. Before wolves colonized Slate Island Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada beavers supposedly foraged >400 m from water [81]. Barnes & Mallik [37] noted that beavers in wolf-dense ecosystems typically foraged within 20 m of water—similar to beavers in the GVE (figure 2)—but beavers in wolf-free ecosystems foraged further from water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wolves alter the trajectory of forests by shaping the central place foraging behaviour of an ecosystem engineer

Gable,

Johnson-Bice,

Homkes

et al. 2023

Proc. R. Soc. B.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Predators can directly and indirectly alter the foraging behaviour of prey through direct predation and the risk of predation, and in doing so, initiate indirect effects that influence myriad species and ecological processes. We describe how wolves indirectly alter the trajectory of forests by constraining the distance that beavers, a central place forager and prolific ecosystem engineer, forage from water. Specifically, we demonstrate that wolves wait in ambush and kill beavers on longer feeding trails than would be expected based on the spatio-temporal availability of beavers. This pattern is driven by temporal dynamics of beaver foraging: beavers make more foraging trips and spend more time on land per trip on longer feeding trails that extend farther from water. As a result, beavers are more vulnerable on longer feeding trails than shorter ones. Wolf predation appears to be a selective evolutionary pressure propelled by consumptive and non-consumptive mechanisms that constrain the distance from water beavers forage, which in turn limits the area of forest around wetlands, lakes and rivers beavers alter through foraging. Thus, wolves appear intricately linked to boreal forest dynamics by shaping beaver foraging behaviour, a form of natural disturbance that alters the successional and ecological states of forests.

show abstract

“…He could be found working on improvements to an earlier draft of his last manuscript, which documents the demise of the Caribou population on the Slate Islands, Ontario. It was published in the previous issue of The Canadian Field-Naturalist (Bergerud et al 2020) and completes a part of Tom's career that started in the early 1970s, testing his hypothesis that Caribou in North America are limited by Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) predation (Bergerud 1974a). Regrettably, illustration of this hypothesis along the north shore of Lake Superior includes the near extirpation of Caribou from this part of their range, even in protected areas like Pukaskwa National Park (Bergerud et al 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%