Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring
Food accessibility and availability in the highly seasonal Arctic landscape can be restricted by snow cover and frozen substrate, particularly in early spring. Therefore, to determine how a long distance migratory herbivore forages in such a landscape, pink‐footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus at an ea...
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crwiley:10.1111/j.1600-048x.2012.05699.x 2023-12-03T10:09:48+01:00 Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring Anderson, Helen B. Godfrey, Thomas G. Woodin, Sarah J. van der Wal, René 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048x.2012.05699.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-048X.2012.05699.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2012.05699.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Journal of Avian Biology volume 43, issue 5, page 415-422 ISSN 0908-8857 1600-048X Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2012 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048x.2012.05699.x 2023-11-09T13:39:12Z Food accessibility and availability in the highly seasonal Arctic landscape can be restricted by snow cover and frozen substrate, particularly in early spring. Therefore, to determine how a long distance migratory herbivore forages in such a landscape, pink‐footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus at an early spring feeding area in Svalbard were studied. Birds arrived in mid May when extensive snow cover restricted habitat availability. Geese fed in all habitats, but the highest densities occurred in wet tundra. However, prolonged snow lie restricted access to wet areas compared to dry and mesic habitats. Above ground biomass was very low in all habitats; yet sizeable amounts occurred below ground. In line with this, the majority of birds (86%) grubbed for below ground plant storage organs such as stem bases and rhizomes. Wet habitat contained greater quantities of edible and lower amounts of inedible below ground material (ratio 1:0.3) than dry (ratio 1:9) or mesic (ratio 1:4) areas. Although foraging in wet habitat prevented geese from encountering high proportions of inedible plant parts, forage species characteristic of this habitat, such as Dupontia grasses and the rush Eriophorum scheuchzeri , were more difficult to extract than food plants typical of drier habitats such as the forb Bistorta vivipara . Hence, we suggest that wet areas are preferred by pink‐footed geese, but the prolonged snow lie there made it necessary to use less preferred but much more abundant drier habitats, which experienced earlier snowmelt and indeed accommodated more than half of all goose foraging recordings. Article in Journal/Newspaper Anser brachyrhynchus Arctic Eriophorum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Svalbard Tundra Wiley Online Library (via Crossref) Arctic Svalbard Journal of Avian Biology 43 5 415 422 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Anderson, Helen B. Godfrey, Thomas G. Woodin, Sarah J. van der Wal, René Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Food accessibility and availability in the highly seasonal Arctic landscape can be restricted by snow cover and frozen substrate, particularly in early spring. Therefore, to determine how a long distance migratory herbivore forages in such a landscape, pink‐footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus at an early spring feeding area in Svalbard were studied. Birds arrived in mid May when extensive snow cover restricted habitat availability. Geese fed in all habitats, but the highest densities occurred in wet tundra. However, prolonged snow lie restricted access to wet areas compared to dry and mesic habitats. Above ground biomass was very low in all habitats; yet sizeable amounts occurred below ground. In line with this, the majority of birds (86%) grubbed for below ground plant storage organs such as stem bases and rhizomes. Wet habitat contained greater quantities of edible and lower amounts of inedible below ground material (ratio 1:0.3) than dry (ratio 1:9) or mesic (ratio 1:4) areas. Although foraging in wet habitat prevented geese from encountering high proportions of inedible plant parts, forage species characteristic of this habitat, such as Dupontia grasses and the rush Eriophorum scheuchzeri , were more difficult to extract than food plants typical of drier habitats such as the forb Bistorta vivipara . Hence, we suggest that wet areas are preferred by pink‐footed geese, but the prolonged snow lie there made it necessary to use less preferred but much more abundant drier habitats, which experienced earlier snowmelt and indeed accommodated more than half of all goose foraging recordings. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anderson, Helen B. Godfrey, Thomas G. Woodin, Sarah J. van der Wal, René |
author_facet |
Anderson, Helen B. Godfrey, Thomas G. Woodin, Sarah J. van der Wal, René |
author_sort |
Anderson, Helen B. |
title |
Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring |
title_short |
Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring |
title_full |
Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring |
title_fullStr |
Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring |
title_full_unstemmed |
Finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus forage during the Arctic spring |
title_sort |
finding food in a highly seasonal landscape: where and how pink footed geese anser brachyrhynchus forage during the arctic spring |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048x.2012.05699.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-048X.2012.05699.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2012.05699.x |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Anser brachyrhynchus Arctic Eriophorum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Anser brachyrhynchus Arctic Eriophorum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Svalbard Tundra |
op_source |
Journal of Avian Biology volume 43, issue 5, page 415-422 ISSN 0908-8857 1600-048X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048x.2012.05699.x |
container_title |
Journal of Avian Biology |
container_volume |
43 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
415 |
op_container_end_page |
422 |
_version_ |
1784267948624445440 |