Pocket gopher (<i>Thomomys talpoides</i>) soil disturbance peaks at mid-elevation and is associated with air temperature, forb cover, and plant diversity
Abstract
Burrowing mammals can be ecosystem engineers by increasing soil aeration and erosion and altering the structure of plant communities. Studies that characterize the constraints on the distributions of fossorial mammal disturbances to soil can help predict changes in ecosystem engineering under future climates. We quantified the density of soil disturbances caused by Thomomys talpoides (northern pocket gopher) over replicate elevation gradients spanning 2,700–4,000 m a.s.l. in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, USA. As a conceptual framework for predicting biogeographic variation in soil disturbance, we used the abundant center hypothesis (ACH), which proposes that species abundance declines monotonically away from the most abundant location in its distribution, with the assumption that ecosystem engineering scales with gopher abundance. We also evaluated the relative importance of abiotic and biotic variables as correlates of soil disturbance. Gopher disturbance peaked at mid elevations (~3,150 m), supporting the ACH. The best model for predicting gopher-caused soil disturbance contained both abiotic and biotic variables, with increased soil disturbance where mean annual temperature, forb cover, and plant diversity were greatest. Results suggest that mountain ecosystems may experience increases in gopher-caused soil disturbance as climate warms, possibly accompanied by increases in plant diversity and forb cover.
Local Knowledge Graph (13 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.
Pocket gopher (<i>Thomomys talpoides</i>) soil disturbance peaks at mid-elevation and is associated with air temperature, forb cover, and plant diversity
Habitat of Pocket Gophers in Cochetopa Creek Drainage, Colorado
Pocket gopher activity across elevation gradients.
Mammalian herbivores restrict the altitudinal range limits of alpine plants
Data for Context-dependent biotic interactions control plant abundance across altitudinal environmental gradients, 2014, 2016, Colorado, USA
Mammalian herbivores restrict the altitudinal range limits of three alpine grass species, West Elk Mountains, Colorado, USA 2015-2018
Colorado?s Alpine Ecosystem Health ? A Case Study on San Juan, Sawatch, and West Elk Mountains
Ecosystem Disturbance and Wildlife Conservation in Western Grasslands
Small Mammal Survey, Acid Fen, Mt. Emmons Gunnison, Colorado
Cited By (12 times, 8 in Knowledge Hub)
Life-history traits predict responses of wild bees to climate variation
Mammalian herbivores restrict the altitudinal range limits of alpine plants
Altitudinal gradients fail to predict fungal symbiont responses to warming
King of the hill? How biotic interactions affect biogeographical pattern and species responses to climate change
Tracking diverse minerals, hungry organisms, and dangerous contaminants using reactive transport models
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic CO Ecology of Place: Making Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Spatially Explicit
Climate Warming Drives Local Extinction in a Subalpine Meadow
Rocky Mountain Biological Lab. Ecology of Place: Making Ecology and Evolutionary Biology spatially explicit
References (81)
3 in Knowledge Hub, 78 external