Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator
Northern ecosystems are facing unprecedented climate modifications, which pose a major threat for arctic species, especially the specialist predator guild. However, the mechanisms underlying responses of predators to climate change remain poorly understood. Climate can influence fitness parameters o...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01024 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.01024 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.01024 |
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crwiley:10.1111/ecog.01024 2024-06-02T08:02:38+00:00 Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator Terraube, Julien Villers, Alexandre Ruffino, Lise Iso‐Iivari, Lasse Henttonen, Heikki Oksanen, Tarja Korpimäki, Erkki 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01024 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.01024 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.01024 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ecography volume 38, issue 7, page 690-699 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 journal-article 2014 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01024 2024-05-06T07:00:40Z Northern ecosystems are facing unprecedented climate modifications, which pose a major threat for arctic species, especially the specialist predator guild. However, the mechanisms underlying responses of predators to climate change remain poorly understood. Climate can influence fitness parameters of predators either through reduced reproduction or survival following adverse weather conditions, or via changes in the population dynamics of their main prey. Here, we combined three overlapping long‐term datasets on the breeding density and parameters of a rodent‐specialist predator, the rough‐legged buzzard Buteo lagopus , its main prey population dynamics and climate variables, collected in subarctic areas of Finland and Norway, to assess the impact of changing climate on the predator reproductive response. Rough‐legged buzzards responded to ongoing climate change by advancing their laying date (0.1 d yr −1 over the 21 yr of the study period), as a consequence of earlier snowmelt. However, we documented for the same period a decrease in breeding success, which principally resulted from an indirect effect of changes in the dynamics of their main prey, i.e. grey‐sided voles Microtus oeconomus , and not from the expected negative effect of unfavorable weather conditions during the brood‐rearing period on nestling survival. Additionally, we showed the striking impact of autumn and winter weather conditions on vole population growth rates in subarctic ecosystems, with a strong positive correlation between mean snow depth in autumn and winter and both winter and summer population growth rates. Our results highlighted that, in northern ecosystems, ongoing climate change has the potential to impact specialist predator species through two mechanistic linkages, which may in the long‐run, threaten the viability of their populations, and lead to potential severe cascading trophic effects at the ecosystem level. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Subarctic Wiley Online Library Arctic Norway Ecography 38 7 690 699 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Northern ecosystems are facing unprecedented climate modifications, which pose a major threat for arctic species, especially the specialist predator guild. However, the mechanisms underlying responses of predators to climate change remain poorly understood. Climate can influence fitness parameters of predators either through reduced reproduction or survival following adverse weather conditions, or via changes in the population dynamics of their main prey. Here, we combined three overlapping long‐term datasets on the breeding density and parameters of a rodent‐specialist predator, the rough‐legged buzzard Buteo lagopus , its main prey population dynamics and climate variables, collected in subarctic areas of Finland and Norway, to assess the impact of changing climate on the predator reproductive response. Rough‐legged buzzards responded to ongoing climate change by advancing their laying date (0.1 d yr −1 over the 21 yr of the study period), as a consequence of earlier snowmelt. However, we documented for the same period a decrease in breeding success, which principally resulted from an indirect effect of changes in the dynamics of their main prey, i.e. grey‐sided voles Microtus oeconomus , and not from the expected negative effect of unfavorable weather conditions during the brood‐rearing period on nestling survival. Additionally, we showed the striking impact of autumn and winter weather conditions on vole population growth rates in subarctic ecosystems, with a strong positive correlation between mean snow depth in autumn and winter and both winter and summer population growth rates. Our results highlighted that, in northern ecosystems, ongoing climate change has the potential to impact specialist predator species through two mechanistic linkages, which may in the long‐run, threaten the viability of their populations, and lead to potential severe cascading trophic effects at the ecosystem level. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Terraube, Julien Villers, Alexandre Ruffino, Lise Iso‐Iivari, Lasse Henttonen, Heikki Oksanen, Tarja Korpimäki, Erkki |
spellingShingle |
Terraube, Julien Villers, Alexandre Ruffino, Lise Iso‐Iivari, Lasse Henttonen, Heikki Oksanen, Tarja Korpimäki, Erkki Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
author_facet |
Terraube, Julien Villers, Alexandre Ruffino, Lise Iso‐Iivari, Lasse Henttonen, Heikki Oksanen, Tarja Korpimäki, Erkki |
author_sort |
Terraube, Julien |
title |
Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
title_short |
Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
title_full |
Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
title_fullStr |
Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
title_sort |
coping with fast climate change in northern ecosystems: mechanisms underlying the population‐level response of a specialist avian predator |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01024 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.01024 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.01024 |
geographic |
Arctic Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Subarctic |
op_source |
Ecography volume 38, issue 7, page 690-699 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01024 |
container_title |
Ecography |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
690 |
op_container_end_page |
699 |
_version_ |
1800747108143202304 |