Top-down vs. bottom-up regulation of herbaceous primary production and composition in an arid, urbanizing ecosystem

Davis, Michelle K.; Cook, Elizabeth M.; Collins, Scott L.; Hall, Sharon J.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.01.018

Cited by 13 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Although the activity of a mesopredator also increased, it did not affect herbivory by the cottontail. In contrast, Davis, Cook, Collins, and Hall (), also working in an arid region, did not see a response of herbivory to urbanization, despite an increase in primary production with urbanization. These two studies confirm that the identity or composition of urban herbivores determines how primary production influences herbivory rates.…”

Section: Trophic Interactions In Citiesmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…. (2012),Dale and Frank (2014),Foran et al (2015), andTurrini et al (2016) Water availabilityBang et al (2012) andDavis et al (2015) Nutrients (pollution, producer quality)Davis et al (2015) andTurrini et al (2016) Primary producer responses (biomass, production, phenology, performance or recruitment)Bang et al (2012),Davis et al (2015),DaVanon et al (2016), and Turrini et al…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trophic structure in a rapidly urbanizing planet

El‐Sabaawi

2018

Functional Ecology

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The human population is rapidly urbanizing, and the negative impacts of urban cover on biodiversity and ecosystem function are expected to increase. Trophic dynamics have been hypothesized to change with urbanization, with consequences for biodiversity and function. Here, I review recent progress in this area by focusing on how urbanization affects dietary sources, trophic interactions and the functional ecology of synanthropic species. Urbanization affects primary autochthonous production in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by replacing and fragmenting natural areas with impervious cover, increasing nutrient supply, changing hydrological regimes, and altering the composition and seasonality of primary producers. The responses of primary production differ between climatic regions or across hydrological regimes. Urbanization can also change the availability of subsidies (autochthonous vs. allochthonous resources) because many urban species feed on human food (anthropogenic subsidies) and because of changes in the plant composition and physical characteristics of riparian zones. Urbanization can change the composition of consumers by decreasing the abundance of apex predators, releasing mesopredators, as well as the introduction of non‐native omnivores. Few direct experiments have been conducted on trophic interactions in urban ecosystems. They broadly suggest that urbanization weakens herbivory and predation, but that it might increase competition between synanthropic and urbanophobic species. However, the outcomes of these interactions are highly context‐specific. The reliance of synanthropic species on anthropogenic subsidies appears to be an important aspect of urban trophic ecology. However, more research is needed to understand how dietary flexibility, especially in relation to anthropogenic subsidies, contributes to the physiology and population dynamics of synanthropes. Urbanization can dramatically change trophic dynamics in the urban ecosystem with implications for biodiversity patterns, management and conservation. However, it is clear that a broader and more mechanistic understanding of the urban food webs is needed. This can be accomplished through inclusion of functional trophic metrics in monitoring efforts, the use of stable isotope food web metrics, the use of multi‐trophic‐level experiments and a more detailed study of the functional ecology of synanthropes. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13114/suppinfo is available for this article.

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Section: Trophic Interactions In Citiesmentioning

confidence: 84%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic structure in a rapidly urbanizing planet

El‐Sabaawi

2018

Functional Ecology

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“…The KPHX station has weather records back to 1930 and was also the location used in the older published dust storm studies (e.g., Brazel and Nickling, 1986). KPHX is also proximal to ASU's Tempe campus as well as to a variety of long-term ecological study sites (e.g., Ball and Guevara, 2015;Bateman et al, 2015;Davis et al, 2015;Giraudeau et al, 2015) for which the deposition predictions of this work could augment the existing research. We retrieved KPHX hourly, quality-controlled local climatological data from 2005 to 2014 (U.S. NOAA, 2015).…”

Section: Retrieval Of Meteorological and Air Quality Recordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The characterization of haboobs and the deposition of dust in Tempe, AZ from 2005 to 2014

2017

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Dust storms known as ‗haboobs' occur in Tempe, AZ during the North American monsoon season. This work presents a catalog of haboob occurrence over the time period 2005 to 2014. A classification method based on meteorological and air quality measurements is described. The major factors that distinguish haboobs events from other dust events and from background conditions are event minimum visibility, maximum wind or gust speed, and maximum PM 10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters of 10 µm or less) concentration. We identified from 3 to 20 haboob events per year over the period from 2005 to 2014. The calculated annual TSP (total suspended particulate) dry deposition ranged from a low of 259 kg ha-1 in 2010 to a high of 2950 kg ha-1 in 2011 with a mean of 950 kg ha-1 yr-1. The deposition of large particles (PM >10) is greater than the deposition of PM 10. The TSP dry deposition during haboobs is estimated to contribute 74% of the total particulate mass deposited in Tempe.

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“…Manuscript to be reviewed abundances. Despite this assumption, previous research at the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) has shown that herbivory within urban and rural Sonoran Desert remnant parks has led to equally reduced biomass in urban and outlying areas (Davis et al, 2015). It is unclear whether this lack of difference in herbivory is the result of unaltered herbivore populations or different activity levels that counteract differences in population densities, given the lack of published data reporting the abundance of small vertebrate herbivores in and around the Phoenix metropolitan area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Census Bureau, 2015). For example, in the last 25 years, the resident population within the Phoenix metropolitan area has increased by 47% (Davis et al, 2015) to its current 4.6 million people. As a result, the area of undisturbed land within this city alone decreased by 21% from 1985 to 2005 (Buyantuyev et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #2 of "Urbanization alters small rodent community composition but not abundance (v0.1)"

McKinney¹

2018

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Desert ecosystems are one of the fastest urbanizing areas on the planet. This rapid shift has the potential to alter the abundances and species richness of herbivore and plant communities. Herbivores, for example, are expected to be more abundant within urban desert remnant parks located within cities due to anthropogenic activities that concentrate food resources and reduce native predator populations. Despite this assumption, previous research conducted around Phoenix, AZ, USA has shown that top-down herbivory led to equally reduced plant biomass in both urban and outlying locations. It is unclear if this insignificant difference in herbivory at urban and outlying sites is due to unaltered desert herbivore populations or altered activity levels that counteract abundance differences.Small rodent herbivore/granivore populations were surveyed at four sites inside and four sites outside of the core of Phoenix during fall 2014 and spring 2015 in order to determine whether abundances and richness differ significantly between urban and rural sites. In order to survey species composition and abundance at these sites, 100 Sherman traps and 8 larger wire traps that are designed to attract and capture small vertebrates such as mice, rats, and squirrels were set at each site for two consecutive trap nights. Results suggest that the commonly assumed effect of urbanization on herbivore abundances does not apply to small rodent populations in a desert city, as overall small rodent abundances were statistically similar regardless of location. Though a significant difference was not found for species richness, a significant difference between small rodent genus richness at these sites was observed, with altered community composition. The compositional differences likely reflect the altered vegetative community and may impact ecological interactions at these sites.

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Top-down vs. bottom-up regulation of herbaceous primary production and composition in an arid, urbanizing ecosystem

Cited by 13 publications

References 57 publications

Trophic structure in a rapidly urbanizing planet

Trophic structure in a rapidly urbanizing planet

The characterization of haboobs and the deposition of dust in Tempe, AZ from 2005 to 2014

Peer Review #2 of "Urbanization alters small rodent community composition but not abundance (v0.1)"

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