The Arctic tundra has a relatively low biodiversity but species living there have unique adaptations and are exposed to unprecedented rates of climate warming. Monitoring changes in Arctic biodiversity and identifying the driving forces is thus a pressing issue. Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic has one of the longest and most comprehensive monitoring programs of the tundra food web, spanning four decades. We provide a historical overview of ecological studies on Bylot Island, summarize their key scientific contributions, show their impacts, and present the ingredients for the success of the program and the main challenges encountered. Some major contributions include demonstrating the key role of predation in structuring the tundra food web, the importance of exchanges between ecosystems for the persistence of top predators and their cascading effects on trophic interactions, the apparent resistance of the vertebrate biota to climate warming, the need to consider multiple hypotheses to explain northward range expansion of species and the benefits of integrating scientific data and local knowledge into ecological monitoring. The program has produced >250 journal articles and >80 graduate student theses, which generated >7,700 citations in the scientific literature. A high proportion (65%) of the articles had more citations than comparable publications in their field. The longevity and success of the program can be attributed to several factors, including a researcher-driven (i.e. bottom-up) approach to design the monitoring; long-term commitment of a small number of dedicated researchers and the strong participation of graduate students; the adoption of a food web rather than a single species perspective; extensive presence in the field; the combination of several methodological approaches; and the use of multiple spatial scales adapted to research questions of interest. Challenges encountered include funding issues, transfer of expertise over time, limited spatial replication, statistical design and maintaining partnerships. Robust monitoring is essential to provide sound baseline to detect future changes, and lessons learned from our program could improve future monitoring schemes in the Arctic. Paradoxically, we believe that ecological monitoring on Bylot Island has been successful in large part because it was not originally designed as a monitoring program per se.

中文翻译：

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拜洛特岛苔原生态系统 30 年生态监测的科学贡献和经验教训

北极苔原的生物多样性相对较低，但生活在那里的物种具有独特的适应能力，并且面临着前所未有的气候变暖速度。因此，监测北极生物多样性的变化并确定驱动力是一个紧迫的问题。加拿大北极地区的拜洛特岛拥有最长、最全面的苔原食物网监测项目之一，持续了四十年。我们提供了拜洛特岛生态研究的历史概述，总结了它们的关键科学贡献，展示了它们的影响，并介绍了该计划成功的要素和遇到的主要挑战。一些主要贡献包括展示捕食在构建苔原食物网中的关键作用、生态系统之间交换对于顶级捕食者持续存在的重要性及其对营养相互作用的级联效应、脊椎动物群对气候变暖的明显抵抗力、考虑多种假设来解释物种向北范围的扩张以及将科学数据和当地知识纳入生态监测的好处。该项目已发表超过 250 篇期刊文章和超过 80 篇研究生论文，在科学文献中被引用超过 7,700 次。很大一部分 (65%) 的文章比其领域的同类出版物获得更多引用。该计划的长寿和成功可归因于几个因素，包括研究人员驱动（即自下而上）的监测设计方法；少数专注研究人员的长期投入和研究生的大力参与；采用食物网而不是单一物种的观点；广泛涉足该领域；多种方法论的结合；以及使用适应感兴趣的研究问题的多个空间尺度。遇到的挑战包括资金问题、随着时间的推移专业知识的转移、有限的空间复制、统计设计和维持伙伴关系。强大的监测对于提供合理的基线来检测未来的变化至关重要，从我们的计划中吸取的经验教训可以改善北极未来的监测计划。矛盾的是，我们认为拜洛特岛的生态监测之所以成功，很大程度上是因为它最初并不是作为监测项目而设计的。