Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature

Spring green-up in Arctic and alpine systems is predominantly controlled by temperature and snowmelt timing preceding and during the growing season. Variation in the timing of green-up across space is an important aspect of resource variability with which mobile herbivores must contend. Here, we mea...

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Main Authors: John, Christian, Miller, Douglas, Post, Eric S.
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:unknown
Published: Center for Open Science 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/xmd69
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spelling crcenteros:10.32942/osf.io/xmd69 2023-05-15T14:58:00+02:00 Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature John, Christian Miller, Douglas Post, Eric S. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/xmd69 unknown Center for Open Science https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode CC-BY-SA posted-content 2020 crcenteros https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/xmd69 2022-02-04T12:14:36Z Spring green-up in Arctic and alpine systems is predominantly controlled by temperature and snowmelt timing preceding and during the growing season. Variation in the timing of green-up across space is an important aspect of resource variability with which mobile herbivores must contend. Here, we measure the explanatory power of abiotic drivers of green-up in a Low Arctic region of west Greenland, host to a migratory caribou population. We identify inconsistent relationships between green-up and abiotic drivers across space. While green-up timing is most closely related to snowmelt in some areas, in others it is most closely related to spring temperature. The negative correlation between the explanatory power of snowmelt and temperature suggests that at broad scales, where green-up is more constrained by snow cover, such as moist, mountainous coastal areas, it is less constrained by temperature. Where snow is less persistent through winter, such as cold, dry inland areas, temperature becomes the predominant factor driving green-up. If the principal driver of spring plant growth is inconsistent across a region, long-term trends in resource phenology could vary spatially. For seasonal migrants like caribou, synchronizing migration timing with resource phenology may be complicated by discordant interannual change across drivers of green-up timing. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Greenland COS Center for Open Science (via Crossref) Arctic Greenland
institution Open Polar
collection COS Center for Open Science (via Crossref)
op_collection_id crcenteros
language unknown
description Spring green-up in Arctic and alpine systems is predominantly controlled by temperature and snowmelt timing preceding and during the growing season. Variation in the timing of green-up across space is an important aspect of resource variability with which mobile herbivores must contend. Here, we measure the explanatory power of abiotic drivers of green-up in a Low Arctic region of west Greenland, host to a migratory caribou population. We identify inconsistent relationships between green-up and abiotic drivers across space. While green-up timing is most closely related to snowmelt in some areas, in others it is most closely related to spring temperature. The negative correlation between the explanatory power of snowmelt and temperature suggests that at broad scales, where green-up is more constrained by snow cover, such as moist, mountainous coastal areas, it is less constrained by temperature. Where snow is less persistent through winter, such as cold, dry inland areas, temperature becomes the predominant factor driving green-up. If the principal driver of spring plant growth is inconsistent across a region, long-term trends in resource phenology could vary spatially. For seasonal migrants like caribou, synchronizing migration timing with resource phenology may be complicated by discordant interannual change across drivers of green-up timing.
format Other/Unknown Material
author John, Christian
Miller, Douglas
Post, Eric S.
spellingShingle John, Christian
Miller, Douglas
Post, Eric S.
Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
author_facet John, Christian
Miller, Douglas
Post, Eric S.
author_sort John, Christian
title Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
title_short Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
title_full Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
title_fullStr Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
title_full_unstemmed Regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
title_sort regional variation in green-up timing along a caribou migratory corridor: spatial associations with snowmelt and temperature
publisher Center for Open Science
publishDate 2020
url http://dx.doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/xmd69
geographic Arctic
Greenland
geographic_facet Arctic
Greenland
genre Arctic
Greenland
genre_facet Arctic
Greenland
op_rights https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
op_rightsnorm CC-BY-SA
op_doi https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/xmd69
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