Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore
Abstract As global warming advances, there is a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on ecosystems. In the Arctic, more frequent unseasonal warm spells and rain‐on‐snow events in winter cause changes in snow‐pack properties, including ground icing. Such extreme weather events a...
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crwiley:10.1002/ecs2.1374 2024-09-15T18:02:13+00:00 Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage B. Stien, Audun D. Albon, Steve Bischof, Richard Carlsson, Anja Irvine, R. Justin Meland, Morten Rivrud, Inger Maren Ropstad, Erik Veiberg, Vebjørn Mysterud, Atle Norges Forskningsråd 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1374 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fecs2.1374 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.1374 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ecs2.1374 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.1374 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ecosphere volume 7, issue 6 ISSN 2150-8925 2150-8925 journal-article 2016 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1374 2024-06-25T04:10:39Z Abstract As global warming advances, there is a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on ecosystems. In the Arctic, more frequent unseasonal warm spells and rain‐on‐snow events in winter cause changes in snow‐pack properties, including ground icing. Such extreme weather events are known to have severe effects across trophic levels, for instance, causing die‐offs of large herbivores. However, the extent to which individuals and populations are able to buffer such events through behavioral plasticity is poorly understood. Here, we analyze responses in space use to rain‐on‐snow and icing events, and their fitness correlates, in wild reindeer in high‐Arctic Svalbard. Range displacement among GPS ‐collared females occurred mainly in icy winters to areas with less ice, lower over‐winter body mass loss, lower mortality rate, and higher subsequent fecundity, than the departure area. Our study provides rare empirical evidence that mammals may buffer negative effects of climate change and extreme weather events by adjusting behavior in highly stochastic environments. Under global warming, behavioral buffering may be important for the long‐term population persistence in mobile species with long generation time and therefore limited ability for rapid evolutionary adaptation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Climate change Global warming Svalbard Wiley Online Library Ecosphere 7 6 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
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English |
description |
Abstract As global warming advances, there is a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on ecosystems. In the Arctic, more frequent unseasonal warm spells and rain‐on‐snow events in winter cause changes in snow‐pack properties, including ground icing. Such extreme weather events are known to have severe effects across trophic levels, for instance, causing die‐offs of large herbivores. However, the extent to which individuals and populations are able to buffer such events through behavioral plasticity is poorly understood. Here, we analyze responses in space use to rain‐on‐snow and icing events, and their fitness correlates, in wild reindeer in high‐Arctic Svalbard. Range displacement among GPS ‐collared females occurred mainly in icy winters to areas with less ice, lower over‐winter body mass loss, lower mortality rate, and higher subsequent fecundity, than the departure area. Our study provides rare empirical evidence that mammals may buffer negative effects of climate change and extreme weather events by adjusting behavior in highly stochastic environments. Under global warming, behavioral buffering may be important for the long‐term population persistence in mobile species with long generation time and therefore limited ability for rapid evolutionary adaptation. |
author2 |
Norges Forskningsråd |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage B. Stien, Audun D. Albon, Steve Bischof, Richard Carlsson, Anja Irvine, R. Justin Meland, Morten Rivrud, Inger Maren Ropstad, Erik Veiberg, Vebjørn Mysterud, Atle |
spellingShingle |
Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage B. Stien, Audun D. Albon, Steve Bischof, Richard Carlsson, Anja Irvine, R. Justin Meland, Morten Rivrud, Inger Maren Ropstad, Erik Veiberg, Vebjørn Mysterud, Atle Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore |
author_facet |
Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage B. Stien, Audun D. Albon, Steve Bischof, Richard Carlsson, Anja Irvine, R. Justin Meland, Morten Rivrud, Inger Maren Ropstad, Erik Veiberg, Vebjørn Mysterud, Atle |
author_sort |
Loe, Leif Egil |
title |
Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore |
title_short |
Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore |
title_full |
Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore |
title_fullStr |
Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore |
title_full_unstemmed |
Behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐Arctic herbivore |
title_sort |
behavioral buffering of extreme weather events in a high‐arctic herbivore |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1374 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fecs2.1374 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.1374 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ecs2.1374 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.1374 |
genre |
Climate change Global warming Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Climate change Global warming Svalbard |
op_source |
Ecosphere volume 7, issue 6 ISSN 2150-8925 2150-8925 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1374 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
6 |
_version_ |
1810439674988068864 |