Effect of Extreme Rainfall on Arthropod Abundance and Emergence across Altitudinal Gradients in Svalbard, RiS ID 11968

Arthropod communities in all ecosystems are being affected by climate change. In the Arctic, preipitation will increase and become more variable. A larger proportion of precipitation will fall as rain rather than snow and extreme summer rainfall events are expected to occur more frequently. There is little experimental evidence of the impacts of rainfall extremes on Arctic ecosystems. In the intended project we will investigate whether extreme rainfall influences the composition and abundance of emerging arthropods during the summer season.We will also assess the role of landscape heterogeneity and timing rain events in assessment of heavy rainfall impacts. We will use an established and controlled experimental setup in the field and expect to deliver contribute to covering the existing knowledge gap on the effect of climate change (and specifically extreme rainfall) on arthropod abundance and emergence.