Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway
Abstract The population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway, was examined from 1988 to 2002 using live‐captured animals. The mean age of both females and males increased over the study, litter production rate and natality declined and body length of adults decreased. Dynamics of body mass wer...
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crwiley:10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 2024-09-30T14:29:57+00:00 Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway Derocher, Andrew E. Norges Forskningsråd Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Population Ecology volume 47, issue 3, page 267-275 ISSN 1438-3896 1438-390X journal-article 2005 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 2024-09-05T05:10:32Z Abstract The population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway, was examined from 1988 to 2002 using live‐captured animals. The mean age of both females and males increased over the study, litter production rate and natality declined and body length of adults decreased. Dynamics of body mass were suggestive of cyclical changes over time and variation in body mass of both adult females and adult males was related to the Arctic Oscillation index. Similarly, litter production rate and natality correlated with the Arctic Oscillation index. The changes in age‐structure, reproductive rates and body length suggest that recovery from over‐harvest continued for almost 30 years after harvest ended in 1973 and that density‐dependent changes are perhaps being expressed in the population. However, the variation in reproduction and body mass in the population show a relationship between large‐scale climatic variation and the upper trophic level in an Arctic marine ecosystem. Similar change in other polar bear populations has been attributed to climate change, and further research is needed to establish linkages between climate and the population ecology of polar bears. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change polar bear Svalbard Wiley Online Library Arctic Svalbard Norway Population Ecology 47 3 267 275 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract The population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway, was examined from 1988 to 2002 using live‐captured animals. The mean age of both females and males increased over the study, litter production rate and natality declined and body length of adults decreased. Dynamics of body mass were suggestive of cyclical changes over time and variation in body mass of both adult females and adult males was related to the Arctic Oscillation index. Similarly, litter production rate and natality correlated with the Arctic Oscillation index. The changes in age‐structure, reproductive rates and body length suggest that recovery from over‐harvest continued for almost 30 years after harvest ended in 1973 and that density‐dependent changes are perhaps being expressed in the population. However, the variation in reproduction and body mass in the population show a relationship between large‐scale climatic variation and the upper trophic level in an Arctic marine ecosystem. Similar change in other polar bear populations has been attributed to climate change, and further research is needed to establish linkages between climate and the population ecology of polar bears. |
author2 |
Norges Forskningsråd Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Derocher, Andrew E. |
spellingShingle |
Derocher, Andrew E. Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway |
author_facet |
Derocher, Andrew E. |
author_sort |
Derocher, Andrew E. |
title |
Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway |
title_short |
Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway |
title_full |
Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway |
title_fullStr |
Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Population ecology of polar bears at Svalbard, Norway |
title_sort |
population ecology of polar bears at svalbard, norway |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change polar bear Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change polar bear Svalbard |
op_source |
Population Ecology volume 47, issue 3, page 267-275 ISSN 1438-3896 1438-390X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-005-0231-2 |
container_title |
Population Ecology |
container_volume |
47 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
267 |
op_container_end_page |
275 |
_version_ |
1811635094544187392 |