Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland
Winter food supply very likely influences the life history of reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus. We therefore examined how lichen biomass affects winter diet composition, body mass and reproduction in 14 herds of semi‐domesticated reindeer in northern Finland. Diet composition was assessed microhistolog...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 |
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crwiley:10.2981/wlb.1995.007 2023-12-03T10:27:46+01:00 Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland Kojola, Ilpo Helle, Timo Niskanen, Mikko Aikio, Pekka 1995 http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Wildlife Biology volume 1, issue 1, page 33-38 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 1995 crwiley https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 2023-11-09T13:39:38Z Winter food supply very likely influences the life history of reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus. We therefore examined how lichen biomass affects winter diet composition, body mass and reproduction in 14 herds of semi‐domesticated reindeer in northern Finland. Diet composition was assessed microhistologically on faeces collected from the actual winter feeding sites of reindeer. When lichen was scarce at these sites reindeer included vascular plants and mosses in their diet. Calf dressed weight depended on both ground lichen biomass and the intensity of supplemental feeding, doe dressed weight depended on lichen biomass alone. One explanation for this difference between calves and does is the connection between food supply and calf mortality: low lichen biomass may promote newborn mortality, which, in turn, frees breeding females from investing further in current reproductive investment. Relative offspring weight (calf/female weight ratio) depended on both lichen biomass and supplemental feeding. Low lichen availability appeared to enhance the impact of density‐independent factors on reproduction, because the annual variation in reproductive rate increased with decreasing lichen biomass. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Finland Wiley Online Library (via Crossref) Wildlife Biology 1 1 33 38 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Kojola, Ilpo Helle, Timo Niskanen, Mikko Aikio, Pekka Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland |
topic_facet |
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Winter food supply very likely influences the life history of reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus. We therefore examined how lichen biomass affects winter diet composition, body mass and reproduction in 14 herds of semi‐domesticated reindeer in northern Finland. Diet composition was assessed microhistologically on faeces collected from the actual winter feeding sites of reindeer. When lichen was scarce at these sites reindeer included vascular plants and mosses in their diet. Calf dressed weight depended on both ground lichen biomass and the intensity of supplemental feeding, doe dressed weight depended on lichen biomass alone. One explanation for this difference between calves and does is the connection between food supply and calf mortality: low lichen biomass may promote newborn mortality, which, in turn, frees breeding females from investing further in current reproductive investment. Relative offspring weight (calf/female weight ratio) depended on both lichen biomass and supplemental feeding. Low lichen availability appeared to enhance the impact of density‐independent factors on reproduction, because the annual variation in reproductive rate increased with decreasing lichen biomass. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kojola, Ilpo Helle, Timo Niskanen, Mikko Aikio, Pekka |
author_facet |
Kojola, Ilpo Helle, Timo Niskanen, Mikko Aikio, Pekka |
author_sort |
Kojola, Ilpo |
title |
Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland |
title_short |
Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland |
title_full |
Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland |
title_fullStr |
Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer Rangifer t. tarandus in Finland |
title_sort |
effects of lichen biomass on winter diet, body mass and reproduction of semi‐domesticated reindeer rangifer t. tarandus in finland |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1995 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 |
genre |
Northern Finland |
genre_facet |
Northern Finland |
op_source |
Wildlife Biology volume 1, issue 1, page 33-38 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1995.007 |
container_title |
Wildlife Biology |
container_volume |
1 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
33 |
op_container_end_page |
38 |
_version_ |
1784277663499681792 |