Summer Feeding Behaviour of Reindeer: A Hierarchical Approach

• Main Authors: Anders Mårell, Acta Universitatis, Agriculturae Sueciae
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Betula nana; Eriophorum; Fennoscandia; Northern Sweden; reindeer husbandry; sami
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.628.733; http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/1203/1/AUAS200656-AM-ThesisFin-0.pdf

as culturally in northern Fennoscandia, where reindeer husbandry traditionally has considered winter to be the bottleneck for reindeer. Recent studies have shown that summer feeding conditions control reindeer population dynamics through indirect effects on winter survival and reproductive success. My thesis is unique as it analyses seasonal plant nutrient dynamics, their spatial patterns and reindeer summer foraging behaviour at different levels simultaneously. The aim was to test the underlying assumptions behind the hypothesis that reindeer select the new emerging growth (highly digestible and protein rich) and move into new areas as the emergence of new growth proceeds along climatic gradients. The studies were done in a mountainous landscape of sub-arctic northern Sweden used by the semi-domesticated reindeer herd belonging to Gabna Sami community. The study on plant nutrient dynamics of four forage species (Betula nana L., Eriophorum angustifolium L., Rumex acetosa L. and Vaccinium myrtillus L.) revealed that plant nitrogen concentrations (and thus protein content) related to snowmelt patterns. It was further shown that reindeer selected areas with high landcover diversity, and thus might