Cover letter
Dear editor,
On behalf of my co-authors and myself, I am submitting the manuscript
entitled “Extreme ecosystem engineering: The impact of marmots on
vegetation cover and plant nitrogen and phosphorus content in a cold,
extremely arid mountain environment.” to Ecology and Evolution.
Burrowing animals influence their environment in several ways, one of
which is the impact on plants by fertilization via excretion on one hand
and herbivory on the other. Literature says, that the role of ecosystem
engineers increases with increasing abiotic stress. We studied the
impact of marmots on vegetation cover and nutrient content in very harsh
abiotic conditions in a high-mountain glacier valley in Eastern Pamir,
where plant life is supressed by cold and extreme aridity. Our results
contradict the abovementioned paradigm, as we found very little evidence
on the impact of the presence of marmot burrows on the studied
parameters. At the same time, it is hard to understand how plants
withstand the herbivore pressure and appear irrespectively of the
proximity of marmot burrows. We are trying to answer some of these
questions in our manuscript.
To our knowledge, the submitted manuscript is the first to study the
role of long-tailed marmots as ecosystem engineers, and to deal with the
impact of burrow-dwelling mammals on plants in such extreme abiotic
conditions. As alpine habitats are especially threatened by climate
change, and glaciers are retreating, revealing areas of bare soil, it is
important to study the mechanisms which shape life in this type of
ecosystem.
I find the submission guidelines and journal philosophy presented on the
website very author-friendly, which was a very important factor while
choosing Ecology and Evolution for the first submission of our
manuscript.
Kindest regards,
Piotr Chibowski