Journal
ECOLOGY
Volume 90, Issue 2, Pages 465-475Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1890/08-0215.1
Keywords
Arctic-nesting Snow Geese; Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada; Chen caerulescens; incubation; predator-prey interactions; resource limitation; top-down control; water availability and limitation
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Arctic Goose Joint Venture (Canadian Wildlife Service)
- Fonds Quebecois pour la Nature et les Technologies
- ArcticNet
- Northern Ecosystem Initiative (Environment Canada)
- Universite Laval
- Centre d'Etudes Nordiques
- Societe Provancher Le Fonds, Richard Bernard
- Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
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Although water availability is primarily seen as a factor affecting food availability (a bottom-up process), we examined its effect on predator-prey interactions through an influence on prey behavior (a top-down process). We documented a link between water availability, predation risk, and reproductive success in a goose species (Chen caerulescens atlantica) inhabiting an Arctic environment where water is not considered a limited commodity. To reach water sources during incubation recesses, geese nesting in mesic tundra (low water availability) must move almost four times as far from their nest than those nesting in wetlands, which reduced their ability to defend their nest against predators and led to a higher predation rate. Nesting success was improved in high rainfall years due to increased water availability, and more so for geese nesting in the low water availability habitat. Likewise, nesting success was improved in years where the potential for evaporative water loss (measured by the atmospheric water vapor pressure) was low, presumably because females had to leave their nest less often to drink. Females from water-supplemented nests traveled a shorter distance to drink, and their nesting success was enhanced by 20% compared to the control. This shows that water availability and rainfall can have a strong effect on predator prey dynamics and that changes in precipitation brought by climate change could have an impact on some Arctic species through a top-down effect.
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