Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
Spatially synchronous fluctuations of animal populations have profound ecological consequences, especially in northern latitudes. Spatially coupled fluctuations are often seen in small rodent populations, albeit with local and regional variations. While both resource limitation and predation influen...
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Ecological Society of America
2022
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 |
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ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/279398 2024-02-11T10:05:38+01:00 Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden Vigués, Jan Norén, Karin Wilkinson, Clive Stoessel, Marianne Angerbjörn, Anders Dalerum, Fredrik Swedish Environmental Protection Agency 2022-06-22 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 unknown Ecological Society of America Publisher's version http://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 Sí doi:10.1002/ecs2.4140 issn: 2150-8925 Ecosphere 13(6): e4140 (2022) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398 open Microtine rodents Norwegian learning Population cycles Population synchrony Spatial variation artículo 2022 ftcsic https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 2024-01-16T11:29:03Z Spatially synchronous fluctuations of animal populations have profound ecological consequences, especially in northern latitudes. Spatially coupled fluctuations are often seen in small rodent populations, albeit with local and regional variations. While both resource limitation and predation influence rodent dynamics, their relative importance for generating spatial variation is less clear, particularly during winter. In this study, we quantify spatial variation in winter abundance of the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) across three ecologically connected mountain areas in northern Sweden and evaluate whether the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation influences such variation. Our data included observations of predated and nonpredated winter nests as well as environmental characteristics of nest locations and nest predation. While the direction of annual changes in lemming nest abundance was perfectly synchronized among the three areas, there were differences in nest abundance, potentially caused by contrasting amplitudes of temporal fluctuations in lemming winter populations. Mustelid predation was positively associated with decreasing lemming populations but did not differ in occurrence among the three areas. Lemming nests were predominantly observed in meadows, whereas areas prone to flooding and close to the tree line were underrepresented. Mustelid predation was most common close to the tree line, but not associated with geomorphological characteristics related to snow depth. We suggest that the observed differences in lemming winter abundances were caused by variations in the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation in the three mountain areas. We encourage further studies evaluating how the relative strength of different processes influence local population regulation, and how such processes influence spatial variation in animal population dynamics at different spatial scales. This study was funded by the Oscar and Lili Lamm Memorial Foundation (FO2018-0022), the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Lemmus lemmus Northern Sweden Norwegian lemming Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Ecosphere 13 6 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) |
op_collection_id |
ftcsic |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Microtine rodents Norwegian learning Population cycles Population synchrony Spatial variation |
spellingShingle |
Microtine rodents Norwegian learning Population cycles Population synchrony Spatial variation Vigués, Jan Norén, Karin Wilkinson, Clive Stoessel, Marianne Angerbjörn, Anders Dalerum, Fredrik Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden |
topic_facet |
Microtine rodents Norwegian learning Population cycles Population synchrony Spatial variation |
description |
Spatially synchronous fluctuations of animal populations have profound ecological consequences, especially in northern latitudes. Spatially coupled fluctuations are often seen in small rodent populations, albeit with local and regional variations. While both resource limitation and predation influence rodent dynamics, their relative importance for generating spatial variation is less clear, particularly during winter. In this study, we quantify spatial variation in winter abundance of the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) across three ecologically connected mountain areas in northern Sweden and evaluate whether the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation influences such variation. Our data included observations of predated and nonpredated winter nests as well as environmental characteristics of nest locations and nest predation. While the direction of annual changes in lemming nest abundance was perfectly synchronized among the three areas, there were differences in nest abundance, potentially caused by contrasting amplitudes of temporal fluctuations in lemming winter populations. Mustelid predation was positively associated with decreasing lemming populations but did not differ in occurrence among the three areas. Lemming nests were predominantly observed in meadows, whereas areas prone to flooding and close to the tree line were underrepresented. Mustelid predation was most common close to the tree line, but not associated with geomorphological characteristics related to snow depth. We suggest that the observed differences in lemming winter abundances were caused by variations in the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation in the three mountain areas. We encourage further studies evaluating how the relative strength of different processes influence local population regulation, and how such processes influence spatial variation in animal population dynamics at different spatial scales. This study was funded by the Oscar and Lili Lamm Memorial Foundation (FO2018-0022), the ... |
author2 |
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vigués, Jan Norén, Karin Wilkinson, Clive Stoessel, Marianne Angerbjörn, Anders Dalerum, Fredrik |
author_facet |
Vigués, Jan Norén, Karin Wilkinson, Clive Stoessel, Marianne Angerbjörn, Anders Dalerum, Fredrik |
author_sort |
Vigués, Jan |
title |
Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden |
title_short |
Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden |
title_full |
Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden |
title_fullStr |
Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden |
title_full_unstemmed |
Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden |
title_sort |
abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern sweden |
publisher |
Ecological Society of America |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 |
genre |
Lemmus lemmus Northern Sweden Norwegian lemming |
genre_facet |
Lemmus lemmus Northern Sweden Norwegian lemming |
op_relation |
Publisher's version http://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 Sí doi:10.1002/ecs2.4140 issn: 2150-8925 Ecosphere 13(6): e4140 (2022) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398 |
op_rights |
open |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
6 |
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1790602745246384128 |