What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?

The presence of a snowpack, which may last up to 9 months in the Arctic, can provide insulation from the cold winter temperature for small mammals living beneath it, such as lemmings. Since lemmings have to move through the snowpack during that period, it is important to better understand how the ph...

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Published in:Journal of Mammalogy
Main Authors: Mathilde Poirier, Gilles Gauthier, Florent Domine
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: American Society of Mammalogists 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129
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spelling ftbioone:10.1093/jmammal/gyz129 2024-06-02T08:00:10+00:00 What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack? Mathilde Poirier Gilles Gauthier Florent Domine Mathilde Poirier Gilles Gauthier Florent Domine world 2020-02-19 text/HTML https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129 en eng American Society of Mammalogists doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyz129 All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129 Text 2020 ftbioone https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129 2024-05-07T00:55:29Z The presence of a snowpack, which may last up to 9 months in the Arctic, can provide insulation from the cold winter temperature for small mammals living beneath it, such as lemmings. Since lemmings have to move through the snowpack during that period, it is important to better understand how the physical properties of snow affect the way they dig tunnels. Here, we tested 1) whether lemmings systematically dig in the snowpack at the ground level where they can find their food plants, and 2) whether they choose the softest snow layer in which to dig, which is usually the depth hoar layer in the arctic snowpack. We found 33 lemming tunnels in 2017 and 2018 by digging through the snow at the sites of arctic fox attacks on lemmings. Contrary to our expectation, almost all the tunnels (32/33) were found to be higher than ground level, probably because of the presence of obstacles (i.e., melt-freeze crusts or hummocks) at the base of the snowpack. As predicted, all tunnels were dug in the soft depth hoar layer, which had a lower density than snow layers below and above it. Lemmings also showed a preference to dig their tunnels at the top of the depth hoar, just below a hard snow layer. Systematically digging their tunnels in the lowest-density snow layer, regardless of its height in the snow pack, could be a strategy for lemmings to minimize energy expenditure, which could improve their survival and chances of reproducing in winter. Text Arctic Fox Arctic BioOne Online Journals Arctic Journal of Mammalogy 100 5 1416 1426
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description The presence of a snowpack, which may last up to 9 months in the Arctic, can provide insulation from the cold winter temperature for small mammals living beneath it, such as lemmings. Since lemmings have to move through the snowpack during that period, it is important to better understand how the physical properties of snow affect the way they dig tunnels. Here, we tested 1) whether lemmings systematically dig in the snowpack at the ground level where they can find their food plants, and 2) whether they choose the softest snow layer in which to dig, which is usually the depth hoar layer in the arctic snowpack. We found 33 lemming tunnels in 2017 and 2018 by digging through the snow at the sites of arctic fox attacks on lemmings. Contrary to our expectation, almost all the tunnels (32/33) were found to be higher than ground level, probably because of the presence of obstacles (i.e., melt-freeze crusts or hummocks) at the base of the snowpack. As predicted, all tunnels were dug in the soft depth hoar layer, which had a lower density than snow layers below and above it. Lemmings also showed a preference to dig their tunnels at the top of the depth hoar, just below a hard snow layer. Systematically digging their tunnels in the lowest-density snow layer, regardless of its height in the snow pack, could be a strategy for lemmings to minimize energy expenditure, which could improve their survival and chances of reproducing in winter.
author2 Mathilde Poirier
Gilles Gauthier
Florent Domine
format Text
author Mathilde Poirier
Gilles Gauthier
Florent Domine
spellingShingle Mathilde Poirier
Gilles Gauthier
Florent Domine
What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
author_facet Mathilde Poirier
Gilles Gauthier
Florent Domine
author_sort Mathilde Poirier
title What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
title_short What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
title_full What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
title_fullStr What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
title_full_unstemmed What guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
title_sort what guides lemmings movements through the snowpack?
publisher American Society of Mammalogists
publishDate 2020
url https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129
op_coverage world
geographic Arctic
geographic_facet Arctic
genre Arctic Fox
Arctic
genre_facet Arctic Fox
Arctic
op_source https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129
op_relation doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyz129
op_rights All rights reserved.
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz129
container_title Journal of Mammalogy
container_volume 100
container_issue 5
container_start_page 1416
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