Context dependent fitness costs of reproduction despite stable body mass costs in an Arctic herbivore ...

• Main Authors: Pigeon, Gabriel, Albon, Steve, Loe, Leif Egil, Bischof, Richard, Bonenfant, Christophe, Farchhammer, Mads, Irvine, Justine, Ropstad, Erik, Veiberg, Vebjorn, Stein, Audun
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2021
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Arctic; Nordenskiöld Land; Rangifer tarandus; Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus; Svalbard; svalbard reindeer
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.80gb5mkrj; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.80gb5mkrj

1. The cost of reproduction on demographic rates is often assumed to operate through changing body condition. Several studies have found that reproduction depresses body mass more if the current conditions are severe, such as high population densities or adverse weather, than under benign environmental conditions. However, few studies have investigated the association between the fitness and body mass costs of reproduction. 2. Using 25 years of individual-based capture-recapture data from Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus), we built a novel Bayesian state-space model that jointly estimated inter-annual change in mass, annual reproductive success, and survival, while accounting for incomplete observations. The model allowed us to partition the differential effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on both non-reproductive mass change and the body mass cost of reproduction and to quantify their consequences on demographic rates. 3. Contrary to our expectation, the body mass cost of ... : The Svalbard reindeer population in Nordenskiöld Land, Svalbard (77°50’–78°20’ N, 15°00’–17°30’ E), was studied in and around the valleys of Reindalen, Semmeldalen and Colesdalen where individual-based monitoring has been conducted, uninterrupted since 1995 (Albon et al., 2017). Up to 2019 a total of 815 individual females have been caught during late winter (mostly April; range: mid-March to early May), using a net stretched between two snowmobiles (Omsjoe et al., 2009). New individuals were marked mainly in their first year of life (c.10 months of age) using coloured and numbered plastic ear tags and collars and were hence of known age. Captured females were weighed to the nearest 0.5 kg and the dataset includes on average 4 annual body mass measurements per individual (sd = 2.2, range = 1 - 12) over their lifetime yielding a total of 2801 mass estimates across these individuals. All capture and live animal handling procedures were performed under licenses from the Norwegian Food Inspection Authority and ...