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
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.