Herbivore Diet Selectivity and Its Influence over Ecosystem Recycling in Wrangel Island

Under increasing human activity in Arctic areas and in the face of global climate change, the study of Arctic communities and ecosystems is becoming more and more relevant. However, the question of the impact of interspecific interactions in their transformation remains unresolved. The paper deals with an analysis of diet selectivity of Wrangel Island lemming, goose and ruminant species, also with an estimation of the selectivity influence on their long-term community dynamics and the entire tundra ecosystem functioning. It was shown that the herbivore selectivity distribution mainly depends on their morphophisiology and that, under equal conditions, lesser selective feeders become dominant with increasing biodiversity. We conclude that, despite the considerable human impact on the composition of herbivore species on the island, their mainly endogenous dynamics of abundance distribution correspond to ecological succession, in which the total herbivore biomass decreased by half and their total phytomass consumption—and likely the whole primary production—decreased more than fourfold.