You can hide but you can't run: apparent competition, predator responses and the decline of Arctic ground squirrels in boreal forests of the southwest Yukon.

ABSTRACT: Throughout much of North America's boreal forest, the cyclical fluctuations of snowshoe hare populations (Lepus americanus) may cause other herbivores to become entrained in similar cycles. Alternating apparent competition via prey switching followed by positive indirect effects are the mechanisms behind this interaction. Our purpose is to document a change in the role of indirect interactions between sympatric populations of hares and arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius), and to emphasize the influence of predation for controlling ground squirrel numbers. We used mark-recapture to estimate the population densities of both species over a 25-year period that covered two snowshoe hare cycles. We analysed the strength of association between snowshoe hare and ground squirrel n

SUBMITTER: Werner JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5012268 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature