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Direct and indirect climatic drivers of biotic interactions: ice-cover and carbon runoff shaping Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus and brown trout Salmo trutta competitive asymmetries

  • Global change ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

One of the major challenges in ecological climate change impact science is to untangle the climatic effects on biological interactions and indirect cascading effects through different ecosystems. Here, we test for direct and indirect climatic drivers on competitive impact of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus L.) on brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) along a climate gradient in central Scandinavia, spanning from coastal to high-alpine environments. As a measure of competitive impact, trout food consumption was measured using 137Cs tracer methodology both during the ice-covered and ice-free periods, and contrasted between lakes with or without char coexistence along the climate gradient. Variation in food consumption between lakes was best described by a linear mixed effect model including a three-way interaction between the presence/absence of Arctic char, season and Secchi depth. The latter is proxy for terrestrial dissolved organic carbon run-off, strongly governed by climatic properties of the catchment. The presence of Arctic char had a negative impact on trout food consumption. However, this effect was stronger during ice-cover and in lakes receiving high carbon load from the catchment, whereas no effect of water temperature was evident. In conclusion, the length of the ice-covered period and the export of allochthonous material from the catchment are likely major, but contrasting, climatic drivers of the competitive interaction between two freshwater lake top predators. While future climatic scenarios predict shorter ice-cover duration, they also predict increased carbon run-off. The present study therefore emphasizes the complexity of cascading ecosystem effects in future effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Teichert, I. P. Helland, R. Hedger and E. Bellier for comments on the manuscript and statistical analysis, and M. Berg, R. Saksgård, G. Rød, Ø. Solem, G. Robertsen, S.S. Ulvan, B. F. Larsen, I. Norum, M. Kristoffersson, N. Hein and J. Anderson for technical assistance, as well as numerous land-owners for access to lakes. Financial support was provided by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR 185109/S30), the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The study was conducted in accordance to national animal care guidelines.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Eva M. Ulvan & Ole Kristian Berg

  2. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, PO Box 5685, Sluppen, 7485, Trondheim, Norway

    Eva M. Ulvan, Anders G. Finstad & Ola Ugedal

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  1. Eva M. Ulvan
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  2. Anders G. Finstad
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  3. Ola Ugedal
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Correspondence to Eva M. Ulvan.

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Communicated by Marc Mangel.

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Ulvan, E.M., Finstad, A.G., Ugedal, O. et al. Direct and indirect climatic drivers of biotic interactions: ice-cover and carbon runoff shaping Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus and brown trout Salmo trutta competitive asymmetries. Oecologia 168, 277–287 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2074-1

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