ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2018
Effects of large herbivores on tundra vegetation in a changing climate, and implications for rewilding.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Herbivore diversity effects on Arctic tundra ecosystems: a systematic review.Environmental evidence · 2024Pooled it
- Rewilding reshapes gut microbiomes and parasite exposure in European bison: a 17‑month release from Wilder Blean.Journal for nature conservation · 2026Article
- Retracing the Response of Rangifer to Postglacial Climate Change in Arctic Islands.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- A framework for reproductive outcomes of phenological match-mismatch in migratory breeders tested on a declining species, caribou.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Shifting and expanding ranges of a sub-Arctic caribou herd and associated changes in vegetation.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Advancing terrestrial ecology by improving cross-temporal research and collaboration.Bioscience · 2025Review
- Article
- Article
- Herbivores in Arctic ecosystems: Effects of climate change and implications for carbon and nutrient cycling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Review
- What are the effects of herbivore diversity on tundra ecosystems? A systematic review protocol.Environmental evidence · 2022Review
- Large herbivores facilitate the persistence of rare taxa under tundra warming.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Reindeer control over subarctic treeline alters soil fungal communities with potential consequences for soil carbon storage.Global change biology · 2021Article
- Large and small herbivores have strong effects on tundra vegetation in Scandinavia and Alaska.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Herbivory and warming interact in opposing patterns of covariation between arctic shrub species at large and local scales.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Article
- Pleistocene Arctic megafaunal ecological engineering as a natural climate solution?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Ethical Considerations for Wildlife Reintroductions and Rewilding.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2020Review
- Long-term changes in northern large-herbivore communities reveal differential rewilding rates in space and time.PloS one · 2019Article
- Trophic rewilding: impact on ecosystems under global change.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In contrast to that of the Pleistocene epoch, between approximately 2.6 million and 10 000 years before present, the extant community of large herbivores in Arctic tundra is species-poor predominantly due to human extinctions. We here discuss how this species-poor herbivore guild influences tundra ecosystems, especially in relation to the rapidly changing climate. We show that present herbivore assemblages have large effects on tundra ecosystem composition and function and suggest that the effect on thermophilic species expected to invade the tundra in a warmer climate is especially strong, and that herbivores slow ecosystem responses to climate change. We focus on the ability of herbivores to drive transitions between different vegetation states. One such transition is between tundra and forest. A second vegetation transition discussed is between grasslands and moss- and shrub-dominated tundra. Contemporary studies show that herbivores can drive such state shifts and that a more diverse herbivore assemblage would have even higher potential to do so. We conclude that even though many large herbivores, and especially the megaherbivores, are extinct, there is a potential to reintroduce large herbivores in many arctic locations, and that doing so would potentially reduce some of the unwanted effects of a warmer climate.This article is part of the theme issue 'Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change'.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.