Summer temperature on the Cape Churchill Peninsula (Manitoba, Canada) has increased rapidly over the past 75 years, and flowering phenology of the plant community is advanced in years with warmer temperatures (higher cumulative growing degree days). Despite this, there has been no overall shift in flowering phenology over this period. However, climate change has also resulted in increased interannual variation in temperature;...

Nesting migratory geese are among the dominant herbivores in (sub) arctic environments, which have undergone unprecedented increases in temperatures and plant growing days over the last three decades. Within these regions, the H udson B ay L owlands are home to an overabundant breeding population of lesser snow geese that has dramatically damaged the ecosystem, with cascading effects at multiple trophic levels. In some areas t...

Despite recent interest in the ecosystem impacts of invasive aboveground organisms, most work in this area has focused on effects of invasive plants, and the effects of invasive herbivores and predators remain poorly understood. We studied 18 forested, offshore islands in northern New Zealand. Nine of these host high densities of burrowing seabirds that serve as ecosystem drivers by transporting nutrients from the ocean to lan...

Predators often exert multi‐trophic cascading effects in terrestrial ecosystems. However, how such predation may indirectly impact interactions between above‐ and below‐ground biota is poorly understood, despite the functional importance of these interactions. Comparison of rat‐free and rat‐invaded offshore islands in New Zealand revealed that predation of seabirds by introduced rats reduced forest soil fertility by disrupting...

Positive and negative species interactions are important factors in structuring vegetation communities. Studies in many ecosystems have focussed on competition; however, facilitation has often been found to outweigh competition under harsh environmental conditions. The balance between positive and negative species interactions is known to shift along spatial, temporal and environmental gradients and thus is likely to be affect...

Insular environments, ranging from oceanic islands to fragments of once‐contiguous natural systems, have long been used by biologists to test basic principles of ecology, evolution and biogeography. More recently, insular environments have figured prominently in conservation ecology, where the aim has usually been to conserve species or assemblages unique to isolated habitats. Improving the level of communication among the evo...