Predictors of invertebrate biomass and rate of advancement of invertebrate phenology across eight sites in the North American Arctic

Rebecca Shaftel,H River Gates,Eunbi Kwon,David H Ward,Richard B Lanctot,Joseph R Liebezeit,Daniel J Rinella,Sarah T Saalfeld,Steve Kendall,Jennie Rausch,David C Payer,Stephen C Brown,Brett K Sandercock,David B Lank,Paul A Smith

doi:10.1007/s00300-020-02781-5

Abstract

Average annual temperatures in the Arctic increased by 2–3 °C during the second half of the twentieth century. Because shorebirds initiate northward migration to Arctic nesting sites based on cues at distant wintering grounds, climate-driven changes in the phenology of Arctic invertebrates may lead to a mismatch between the nutritional demands of shorebirds and the invertebrate prey essential for egg formation and subsequent chick survival. To explore the environmental drivers affecting invertebrate availability, we modeled the biomass of invertebrates captured in modified Malaise-pitfall traps over three summers at eight Arctic Shorebird Demographics Network sites as a function of accumulated degree-days and other weather variables. To assess climate-driven changes in invertebrate phenology, we used data from the nearest long-term weather stations to hindcast invertebrate availability over 63 summers, 1950–2012. Our results confirmed the importance of both accumulated and daily temperatures as predictors of invertebrate availability while also showing that wind speed negatively affected invertebrate availability at the majority of sites. Additionally, our results suggest that seasonal prey availability for Arctic shorebirds is occurring earlier and that the potential for trophic mismatch is greatest at the northernmost sites, where hindcast invertebrate phenology advanced by approximately 1–2.5 days per decade. Phenological mismatch could have long-term population-level effects on shorebird species that are unable to adjust their breeding schedules to the increasingly earlier invertebrate phenologies.

Highlights

Annual temperatures in the Arctic have increased by 2–3 °C in recent decades due primarily to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (Allen et al 2018)
Warming can lead to advancing phenology (Høye et al 2007), which may have negative consequences for consumers in cases where the timing of resource demand does not advance at the same rate as resource availability, creating trophic mismatch (Durant et al 2007)
The potential effects of trophic mismatches are predicted to be greatest for long-distance migrants that breed in seasonally productive habitats (Both et al 2010), such as Arctic-breeding shorebirds

Summary

Introduction

Annual temperatures in the Arctic have increased by 2–3 °C in recent decades due primarily to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (Allen et al 2018). Extended author information available on the last page of the article warmer lake and pond temperatures, and changes in thermokarst dynamics (Hinzman et al 2005; Liljedahl et al 2016). Biological responses to warming are complex and difficult to predict but include northward expansion of species distributions (Bhatt et al 2010; Tape et al 2016) and increased productivity (Hudson and Henry 2009). The potential effects of trophic mismatches are predicted to be greatest for long-distance migrants that breed in seasonally productive habitats (Both et al 2010), such as Arctic-breeding shorebirds. Climate-driven changes in seasonality may lead to asynchrony between shorebirds and

Methods

Results

Conclusion