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Science 25 August 1995:
Vol. 269. no. 5227, pp. 1112 - 1115
DOI: 10.1126/science.269.5227.1112
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Articles

Impact of Food and Predation on the Snowshoe Hare Cycle

Charles J. Krebs 1, Stan Boutin 2, Rudy Boonstra 3, A. R. E. Sinclair 1, J. N. M. Smith 1, Mark R. T. Dale 2, K. Martin 4, and R. Turkington 5

1 Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
3 Department of Life Sciences, Scarborough Campus, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada
4 Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
5 Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada

Snowshoe hare populations in the boreal forests of North America go through 10-year cycles. Supplemental food and mammalian predator abundance were manipulated in a factorial design on 1-square-kilometer areas for 8 years in the Yukon. Two blocks of forest were fertilized to test for nutrient effects. Predator exclosure doubled and food addition tripled hare density during the cyclic peak and decline. Predator exclosure combined with food addition increased density 11-fold. Added nutrients increased plant growth but not hare density. Food and predation together had a more than additive effect, which suggests that a three-trophic-level interaction generates hare cycles.

Submitted on March 6, 1995
Accepted on June 20, 1995


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