Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics
Abstract Background Extensive work has been done to identify and explain multi-year cycles in animal populations. Several attempts have been made to relate these to climatic cycles. We use advanced time series analysis methods to attribute cyclicities in several North-American mammal species to abio...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
BioMed Central Ltd.
2004
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/4/6 |
id |
ftbiomed:oai:biomedcentral.com:1472-6785-4-6 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftbiomed:oai:biomedcentral.com:1472-6785-4-6 2023-05-15T17:33:39+02:00 Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics Loeuille, Nicolas Ghil, Michael 2004-05-07 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/4/6 en eng BioMed Central Ltd. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/4/6 Copyright 2004 Loeuille and Ghil; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL. population dynamics climatic effects principal component analysis spectral analysis multi-annual periodicities Research article 2004 ftbiomed 2007-11-11T15:38:36Z Abstract Background Extensive work has been done to identify and explain multi-year cycles in animal populations. Several attempts have been made to relate these to climatic cycles. We use advanced time series analysis methods to attribute cyclicities in several North-American mammal species to abiotic vs. biotic factors. Results We study eleven century-long time series of fur-count s and three climatic records – the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the El-Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures – that extend over the same time interval. Several complementary methods of spectral analysis are applied to these 14 times series, singly or jointly. These spectral analyses were applied to the leading principal components (PCs) of the data sets. The use of both PC analysis and spectral analysis helps distinguish external from intrinsic factors that influence the dynamics of the mammal populations. Conclusions Our results show that all three climatic indices influence the animal-population dynamics: they explain a substantial part of the variance in the fur-counts and share characteristic periods with the fur-count data set. In addition to the climate-related periods, the fur-count time series also contain a significant 3-year period that is, in all likelihood, caused by biological interactions. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation BioMed Central |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
BioMed Central |
op_collection_id |
ftbiomed |
language |
English |
topic |
population dynamics climatic effects principal component analysis spectral analysis multi-annual periodicities |
spellingShingle |
population dynamics climatic effects principal component analysis spectral analysis multi-annual periodicities Loeuille, Nicolas Ghil, Michael Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics |
topic_facet |
population dynamics climatic effects principal component analysis spectral analysis multi-annual periodicities |
description |
Abstract Background Extensive work has been done to identify and explain multi-year cycles in animal populations. Several attempts have been made to relate these to climatic cycles. We use advanced time series analysis methods to attribute cyclicities in several North-American mammal species to abiotic vs. biotic factors. Results We study eleven century-long time series of fur-count s and three climatic records – the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the El-Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures – that extend over the same time interval. Several complementary methods of spectral analysis are applied to these 14 times series, singly or jointly. These spectral analyses were applied to the leading principal components (PCs) of the data sets. The use of both PC analysis and spectral analysis helps distinguish external from intrinsic factors that influence the dynamics of the mammal populations. Conclusions Our results show that all three climatic indices influence the animal-population dynamics: they explain a substantial part of the variance in the fur-counts and share characteristic periods with the fur-count data set. In addition to the climate-related periods, the fur-count time series also contain a significant 3-year period that is, in all likelihood, caused by biological interactions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Loeuille, Nicolas Ghil, Michael |
author_facet |
Loeuille, Nicolas Ghil, Michael |
author_sort |
Loeuille, Nicolas |
title |
Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics |
title_short |
Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics |
title_full |
Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics |
title_fullStr |
Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics |
title_full_unstemmed |
Intrinsic and climatic factors in North-American animal population dynamics |
title_sort |
intrinsic and climatic factors in north-american animal population dynamics |
publisher |
BioMed Central Ltd. |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/4/6 |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_relation |
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/4/6 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2004 Loeuille and Ghil; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL. |
_version_ |
1766132218397196288 |