Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes
Species that seasonally moult from brown to white to match snowy backgrounds become conspicuous and experience increased predation risk as snow cover duration declines. Long-term adaptation to camouflage mismatch in a changing climate might occur through phenotypic plasticity in colour moult phenolo...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 2024-09-30T14:30:29+00:00 Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes Zimova, Marketa Moberg, Dick Mills, L. Scott Dietz, Andreas J. Angerbjörn, Anders Division of Environmental Biology National Science Foundation 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Biology Letters volume 18, issue 11 ISSN 1744-957X journal-article 2022 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 2024-09-02T04:21:03Z Species that seasonally moult from brown to white to match snowy backgrounds become conspicuous and experience increased predation risk as snow cover duration declines. Long-term adaptation to camouflage mismatch in a changing climate might occur through phenotypic plasticity in colour moult phenology and or evolutionary shifts in moult rate or timing. Also, adaptation may include evolutionary shifts towards winter brown phenotypes that forgo the winter white moult. Most studies of these processes have occurred in winter white populations, with little attention to polymorphic populations with sympatric winter brown and winter white morphs. Here, we used remote camera traps to record moult phenology and mismatch in two polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes in Sweden over 2 years. We found that the colder, more northern population moulted earlier in the autumn and later in the spring. Next, foxes moulted earlier in the autumn and later in the spring during colder and snowier years. Finally, white foxes experienced relatively low camouflage mismatch while blue foxes were mismatched against snowy backgrounds most of the autumn through the spring. Because the brown-on-white mismatch imposes no evident costs, we predict that as snow duration decreases, increasing blue morph frequencies might help facilitate species persistence. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic The Royal Society Arctic Biology Letters 18 11 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
op_collection_id |
crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Species that seasonally moult from brown to white to match snowy backgrounds become conspicuous and experience increased predation risk as snow cover duration declines. Long-term adaptation to camouflage mismatch in a changing climate might occur through phenotypic plasticity in colour moult phenology and or evolutionary shifts in moult rate or timing. Also, adaptation may include evolutionary shifts towards winter brown phenotypes that forgo the winter white moult. Most studies of these processes have occurred in winter white populations, with little attention to polymorphic populations with sympatric winter brown and winter white morphs. Here, we used remote camera traps to record moult phenology and mismatch in two polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes in Sweden over 2 years. We found that the colder, more northern population moulted earlier in the autumn and later in the spring. Next, foxes moulted earlier in the autumn and later in the spring during colder and snowier years. Finally, white foxes experienced relatively low camouflage mismatch while blue foxes were mismatched against snowy backgrounds most of the autumn through the spring. Because the brown-on-white mismatch imposes no evident costs, we predict that as snow duration decreases, increasing blue morph frequencies might help facilitate species persistence. |
author2 |
Division of Environmental Biology National Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zimova, Marketa Moberg, Dick Mills, L. Scott Dietz, Andreas J. Angerbjörn, Anders |
spellingShingle |
Zimova, Marketa Moberg, Dick Mills, L. Scott Dietz, Andreas J. Angerbjörn, Anders Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes |
author_facet |
Zimova, Marketa Moberg, Dick Mills, L. Scott Dietz, Andreas J. Angerbjörn, Anders |
author_sort |
Zimova, Marketa |
title |
Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes |
title_short |
Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes |
title_full |
Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes |
title_fullStr |
Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of Arctic foxes |
title_sort |
colour moult phenology and camouflage mismatch in polymorphic populations of arctic foxes |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Biology Letters volume 18, issue 11 ISSN 1744-957X |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0334 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
11 |
_version_ |
1811635408038002688 |