Appendix A. Studies examining the food-web-level and ecosystem-level effects of resource pulses in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
TABLE A1. Examples of studies examining the community-level and ecosystem-level effects of resource pulses in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
|
|
||||||||
| Pulse driver and event | System | Resource type | Pulse source | Pulse frequency | Bottom-up impacts | Top-down and indirect impacts | References | |
| A) Terrestrial pulses | ||||||||
| ENSO | arid Gulf of California islands | increased rainfall triggers increased seed and plant biomass production | autochthonous | increased rainfall, increased plant biomass and seed production, increased arthropod and rodent abundance | increased nutrient release on islands with bird nesting islands in wet years (guano) | Polis et al. 1997; Stapp et al. 1999;Sánchez Piñero and Polis 2000; Stapp and Polis 2003; Anderson and Polis 2004 | ||
| ENSO | arid central Australia | increased rainfall triggers increased seed production | autochthonous | increased rainfall, increased seed production, increased rodent populations, increased felines and foxes | cat and fox populations control rodent populations ~1 year after rain events | Letnic et al. 2004; Letnic et al 2005 | ||
| ENSO | semi-arid Chile | increased rainfall triggers increased seed production | autochthonous | increased rainfall, increased seed production and plant biomass, increased rodent density, increased carnivores (mammals and birds) | carnivores utilize mammals as primary food source | Jaksic et al. 1992; Lima et al 1999; Lima et al. 2002 | ||
| ENSO | arid north-central Chile | increased rainfall triggers increased seed production | autochthonous | increased rainfall, increased seed production and plant biomass, increased rodent density, increased carnivores (mammals and birds) | carnivores increase use of rodents, regulate rodent populations | Meserve et al. 1999; Meserve et al. 2001; Meserve et al. 2003 | ||
| ENSO | arid southwestern United States | increased rainfall triggers increased seed production | autochthonous | increased rains, increased seed production, increase rodent populations | high rodent populations affect plant growth and performance; increased viral pathogens in rodents | Brown and Ernest 2002 | ||
| Hurricane | tropical and sub-tropical forests | increased litterfall and canopy light gaps | autochthonous | increased soil nutrients, increased microbial activity, increased some terrestrial gastropod taxa | unknown | Tanner et al. 1991; Lin et al. 2003; Bloch and Willig 2006 | ||
| Wind storm event and associatedatmospheric deposition | semi-arid grasslands and forests | deposition of aeolean dust and nutrients from other terrestrial systems | allochthonous | increased forest and grassland production | unknown | Avila and Penuelas 1999; Okin et al. 2005 | ||
| Seed pulse/masting | eastern North American oak forests | high production of acorns | autochthonous | increased rodents and white tail deer, increased raptors | rodent populations decrease songbirds and gypsy moth pupae; high rodent populations can lead to high Lyme Disease infection of mice and humans | Ostfeld et al. 1996; Elkington et al. 1996; Jones et al. 1998; Schmidt and Ostfeld 2003 | ||
| Seed pulse/masting | European temperate forest | high production of oak and hornbeam seeds | autochthonous | increased rodents and wild boars, increased martens and owls, increased racoon dogs | increased rodent populations regulate songbird and arthropod populations | J?drzejewska and J?drzejewski 1998 | ||
| Seed pulse/masting | New Zealand beech forests | high production of beech seeds | autochthonous | increased rodents, increased stoats | increased stoat populations reduce native bird populations | King 1982; King 1983; Wilson et al. 1998; King 2002; Schauber et al. 2002; King et al. 2003; Purdey et al. 2004 | ||
| Insect outbreak | temperate forests | outbreak of lepidopteran larvae feeding on vegetation and producing frass and excreta | autochthonous | increased epiphytic microbes; premature (green) leaf fall, increased nitrogen inputs to soils, increased soil microbial activity | unknown | Stadler et al 2001; Lovett et al. 2002 | ||
| Anadromous fish reproduction | temperate coastal riparian forests | deposition of spawning salmon cacasses (detritus) | allochthonous | increased dissoved nutrients in soils, increased plant growth, increased bear and bird activity | bears recycle salmon-derived N to forests (urine) | Ben-David et al. 1998; Hilderbrand et al. 1999; Helfield and Naiman 2001; Gende et al. 2002; Naiman et al. 2002 | ||
| Insect emergence | North American temperate forest | deposition of periodical cicada cacasses (detritus) | autochthonous | increased soil nutrients, increased fungal and bacterial biomass increased plant growth and reproduction, increased detritivorous arthropod activity, increased bird densities | unknown | Whiles et al. 2001; Yang 2004; Koenig and Liebhold 2005; Yang 2006 | ||
| Currents and tides deposit organisms and phyto-detritus | arid Gulf of California islands (nearshore areas) | wash-up of marine animal carcasses and algae (detritus) | allochthonous | increased detritivorous arthropods, increased predatory arthropods, increased coyotes | arthropod regulation by spiders | Polis and Hurd 1995; Polis and Hurd 1996; Polis et al. 1997; Rose and Polis 1998 | ||
| B) Aquatic pulses | ||||||||
| ENSO | Madagascar Basin | increased winds and deep water entrainment, input of dissolved nutrients | autochthonous | increased winds, increased deep water entrainment, increased phytoplankton | unknown | Longhurst 2001 | ||
| ENSO | Tropical Paciific Ocean | increased winds and deep water entrainment, input of dissolved nutrients | autochthonous | increased deep water entrainment, increased phytoplankton, increased zooplankton | unknown | Chavez et al. 1999; Turk et al. 2001; Fernandez-Almo and Farber-Lorda 2006; Wang and Fielder 2006 | ||
| Hurricane | Sargasso Sea | increased winds and deep water entrainment, input of dissolved nutrients | autochthonous | increased phytoplankton biomass | unknown | Babin et al. 2004 | ||
| Hurricane | coastal estuary (North Carolina) | increased freshwater and dissolved nutrient runoff | allochthonous | increased nutrients, increased phytoplankton biomass | decreased salinity leads to decrease in benthic organisms | Paerl et al. 2001 | ||
| Hurricane | subtropical shallow lake | winds and runoff uprooting of aquaticmacrophytes, leading to increased nutrients | autochthonous | increased phytoplankton biomass, decreased macrophyte-utilizing cladoceran taxa, increased benthic and pelgaic cladoceran taxa | potential shift to alternate regime dominated by turbid, algae-dominated conditions | Shumate et al. 2002; Schelske et al. 2005; Chimney 2005 | ||
| Hurricane | tropical headwater stream | high winds leading to increased green leaf and plant litter deposition (detritus) | allochthonous | detritual processing by stream arthropods, fine organic matter production | unknown | Crowl et al. 2001 | ||
| Wind storm event and associatedatmospheric deposition | open ocean | deposition of aeolean dust from mainland areas | allochthonous | increase nutrients (mostly P), increase bacteria, increase algae | unknown | Carbo et al. 2005; Yuan and Zhang 2006 | ||
| Wind storm event and associatedatmospheric deposition | lakes | deposition of inorganic N and P in rainfall | allochthonous | increased phytoplankton biomass | unknown | Axler et al. 1993; Jassby et al. 1994; Bergström et al. 2005 | ||
| Storms and associated deep water entrainment | freshwater lakes | storm-generated winds or end-of-season cooling leading to entrainment of deeper waters and dissolved nutrients | autochthonous | increased nutrients, increased algae | increased nutrient loading leads to blooms of grazing-resistant algae | Soranno 1997; Soranno et al. 1997; Alvarez-Cobelas et al. 2005 | ||
| Storms and associated deep water entrainment | open ocean | seasonal wind events leading to entrainment of deeper waters and dissolved nutrients | autochthonous | increased nutrients, increased phytoplankton | unknown | Kumar et al. 2001; Sarmiento et al. 2003; Conte et al. 2003 | ||
| Higher than average precipitation and 20-yr flood event | freshwater lake | Inundation of riparian area, standing water for littoral plants, input of organic matter for microbes | allochthonous | increased net ecosystem productivity, changed littoral macrophyte composition | decreased sediment decomposition and terrestrial plant production | Larmola et al. 2004 | ||
| Tree pollen deposition | lakes | deposition of tree pollen onto lake surface | allochthonous | increased nutrients, increased phytoplankton biomass, increased zooplankton biomass | grazing led to greater abundance of inedible algae | Graham et al. 2006 | ||
| Synchronous propagule production | Indio-Pacific Ocean | synchronous release of gametes by scleractinean corals | autochthonous | fish consume synchronously released of coral propagules, increased body condition in female damselfish, larger laval fish yolk sacs and lipids | unknown | McCormick 2003 | ||
| Anadromous fish reproduction | temperate coastal streams | deposition of spawning salmon cacasses in streambed (detritus) | allochthonous | increased dissolved nutrients, increased periphyton, increased aquatic arthropods, increased fish growth | unknown | Mitchell and Lamberti 2005; Claeson et al. 2006; Lessard and Merritt 2006 | ||
| Anadromous fish reproduction | temperate coastal lakes | deposition of spawning salmon cacasses on lake bottom (detritus) | allochthonous | increased dissolved nutrients, increased phytoplankton, increased zooplankton, | increased zooplanktivorous fish fry decrease zooplankton biomass | Krohkin 1975; Schmidt et al. 1998, Finney et al. 2000; Naiman et al. 2002 | ||
| Insect emergence | eastern North American woodland ponds | deposition of periodical cicada cacasses (detritus) | allochthonous | increased dissolved nutrients, increased phytoplantkon and periphyton, increased herbivorous and predaceous zooplantkon, increaesed herbivorous snails | phytoplankton and periphyton eventually declinedue to increased herbivory | Nowlin et al. in press | ||
| Insect movement | temperate lake | deposition of swarming ants (detritus) | allochthonous | increased dissolved N, increased primary production | ant-derived N recycling by fish (excretion) | Carlton and Goldman 1984 | ||
| Waterbird movement and excretion | wetlands | migrating waterbirds depositing guano | allochthonous | increased nutrients, increased primary production, support mosquitofish and crayfish populations | unknown | Kitchell et al. 1999 | ||