Some of you may be familiar with the Herbivory Network project “systematic map of arctic herbivory”. After publishing a “protocol for systematic map” we are now inviting all HN members to co-author the systematic map publication. To join the co-author team you will need to do about a week of work – including i) few days on various small tasks such as scoring papers for inclusion/exclusion, doing searches on various databases, extracting data from papers, and ii) commenting on the manuscript. We will also have a session at the HN meeting in September to work on data analysis/manuscript.
If you are interested in contributing to this effort, please get in touch with Eeva Soininen (eeva.soininen@uit.no).
Short intro to the project
In general, the effects of herbivores on plants and ecosystem functioning depend on the ecological context where the interaction takes place. For example, plants can respond to herbivory differently depending on local soil conditions such as fertility or salinity. Yet, research on herbivory in tundra environments has, until recently, been surprisingly local in extent. The conclusions of local studies on herbivory are thus inevitably affected by the ecological context of the study. Hence, to what extent the current research covers possible ecological contexts is an essential determinant of the general conclusions that can be drawn about the role of herbivory for arctic ecosystems change. Furthermore, the robustness of such conclusions is also pending on the coverage of the underlying ecological contexts. The main idea is to map the ecological contexts in which herbivory has been studied in the Arctic. By understanding which ecological contexts have been more studied and which are underrepresented, we will be able to draw a more robust picture of the effect of herbivory in tundra ecosystems and its variability, given current and past research efforts and the available evidence.