Invertebrates (spiders, insects and slugs) were collected weekly using pitfall traps at four sites near the Arctic LTER at Toolik Field Station, Alaska. Traps were placed along transects in shrub (shrub-dominant) and open (tussock-dominant) tundra sites. Pitfall traps were placed for 48-hour intervals once per week from early June until mid-July 2010. Collected invertebrates were counted and identified to class (all invertebrates), order or family (for some of the most common families collected).
Data Set Results
The abundance and dry biomass of canopy-dwelling arthropods (insects and small spiders) was tracked over five summers (2010-2014) at four sites near Toolik Field Station, Alaska. At each site, a shrub-dominant and tussock-tundra habitat was chosen for sampling, for a total of 8 sampling locations. At each sampling location, a 100-meter transect was established. Arthropods were sampled along the transect weekly by passing a sweepnet through and over the vegetation. After killing the arthropods with pest strips and freezing, they were sorted from the associated leaf litter and counted.
We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how explicitly representing grazers versus having grazer effects implicitly aggregated in with other biogeochemical processes in the model alters predicted responses to elevated carbon dioxide and warming. The aggregated approach can affect model predictions because grazer-mediated processes can respond differently to changes in climate from the processes with which they are typically aggregated.
We use a simple model of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycles in terrestrial ecosystems to examine how explicitly representing grazers versus having grazer effects implicitly aggregated in with other biogeochemical processes in the model alters predicted responses to elevated carbon dioxide and warming. The aggregated approach can affect model predictions because grazer-mediated processes can respond differently to changes in climate from the processes with which they are typically aggregated.