A new study released this month reveals interactions such as predation and competition between plant and animal species are much stronger in tropical regions and lower elevations.
A new study released this month reveals interactions such as predation and competition between plant and animal species are much stronger in tropical regions and lower elevations. Some of the experiments in the report were conducted near Smithers by UNBC Adjunct professor Dr. Sybille Haeussler.
The study, “Seed predation increases from the Arctic to the equator and from high to low elevations,” was published on Feb. 20 in the online journal, Science Advances, http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/2/eaau4403
The experiment involved researchers from 13 institutions across the Americas and deployed 7,000 seed depots distributed across a huge geographical area, with 79 sites spread out over 18 elevational transects, each replicated three to six times, stretching from Alaska to the equator. The sheer scale of the research makes it by far the largest field experiment ever conducted on this subject. Until recently, evidence for this key ecological theory was inconclusive and came from small-scale studies that used various methods.
This new evidence supports a key Darwinian hypothesis – that biotic interactions between species will increase at lower latitudes and elevations. Some of that evidence comes from Hudson Bay Mountain, near Smithers.
Continue reading at University of Northern British Columbia.
Image via University of Northern British Columbia.
