Nature · 2
What term do ecologists use for the risk Arctic goose chicks face when hatching no longer lines up with the brief peak in tundra plant nutrition?
Answer
Trophic mismatch
Trophic mismatch (also called phenological mismatch) describes a breakdown in timing between a consumer's life cycle and the peak availability or quality of its food source, as seen when Arctic goose hatching drifts out of sync with tundra plant growth.
💡 Did you know?
Some Arctic geese time their arrival so precisely that chicks hatch exactly when plants peak nutritionally—delays of days mean starvation.
Other options people guess
- Ecological succession
- Allopatric speciation
- Bergmann's rule
Topics
- arctic
- birds
- migration
- ecology
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