Adding animals to the equation: Trophic interactions mediate carbon cycling in arctic tundra

Animals have a functional role in the global C cycle by mediating physical, chemical and biological processes that influence dynamics in C biogeochemistry. Animals alter C fluxes to and from most major C pools and affect pool sizes - thus omitting their role could be misrepresenting the biosphere’s contribution to local and global C budgets. Although arctic tundra is a critical ecosystem to global C cycling, surprisingly few empirical studies, and only one modeling study, have accounted for arctic fauna. Understanding how trophic interactions mediate C cycling will provide unprecedented mechanistic understanding to improve future predictions of tundra C biogeochemistry.