Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow
During the cold arctic winter, small mammals like lemmings seek refuge inside the snowpack to keep warm and they dig tunnels in the basal snow layer, usually formed of a soft depth hoar, to find vegetation on which they feed. The snowpack, however, is a heterogenous medium and lemmings should use ha...
Published in: | Oecologia |
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294/document https://hal.science/hal-04308294/file/Lemming%20winter%20habitat%20-for%20HAL.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y |
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ftinsu:oai:HAL:hal-04308294v1 2023-12-31T10:03:41+01:00 Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow Poirier, Mathilde Gauthier, Gilles Domine, Florent Fauteux, Dominique Centre d'Etudes Nordiques (CEN) Université Laval Québec (ULaval) Takuvik Joint International Laboratory ULAVAL-CNRS Université Laval Québec (ULaval)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Canadian Museum of Nature (CANADA) 2023 https://hal.science/hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294/document https://hal.science/hal-04308294/file/Lemming%20winter%20habitat%20-for%20HAL.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y en eng HAL CCSD Springer Verlag info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294/document https://hal.science/hal-04308294/file/Lemming%20winter%20habitat%20-for%20HAL.pdf doi:10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/licences/copyright/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 0029-8549 EISSN: 1432-1939 Oecologia https://hal.science/hal-04308294 Oecologia, 2023, 202 (2), pp.211-225. ⟨10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y⟩ Climate change Habitat use Rodent Small mammals Snowpack [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology environment/Bioclimatology info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2023 ftinsu https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y 2023-12-06T17:23:08Z During the cold arctic winter, small mammals like lemmings seek refuge inside the snowpack to keep warm and they dig tunnels in the basal snow layer, usually formed of a soft depth hoar, to find vegetation on which they feed. The snowpack, however, is a heterogenous medium and lemmings should use habitats where snow properties favor their survival and winter reproduction. We determined the impact of snow physical properties on lemming habitat use and reproduction in winter by sampling their winter nests for 13 years and snow properties for 6 years across 4 different habitats (mesic, riparian, shrubland, and wetland) on Bylot Island in the Canadian High Arctic. We found that lemmings use riparian habitat most intensively because snow accumulates more rapidly, the snowpack is the deepest and temperature of the basal snow layer is the highest in this habitat. However, in the deepest snowpacks, the basal depth hoar layer was denser and less developed than in habitats with shallower snowpacks, and those conditions were negatively related to lemming reproduction in winter. Shrubland appeared a habitat of moderate quality for lemmings as it favored a soft basal snow layer and a deep snowpack compared with mesic and wetland, but snow conditions in this habitat critically depend on weather conditions at the beginning of the winter. With climate change, a hardening of the basal layer of the snowpack and a delay in snow accumulation are expected, which could negatively affect the winter habitat of lemmings and be detrimental to their populations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Bylot Island Climate change Institut national des sciences de l'Univers: HAL-INSU Oecologia 202 2 211 225 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Institut national des sciences de l'Univers: HAL-INSU |
op_collection_id |
ftinsu |
language |
English |
topic |
Climate change Habitat use Rodent Small mammals Snowpack [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology environment/Bioclimatology |
spellingShingle |
Climate change Habitat use Rodent Small mammals Snowpack [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology environment/Bioclimatology Poirier, Mathilde Gauthier, Gilles Domine, Florent Fauteux, Dominique Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
topic_facet |
Climate change Habitat use Rodent Small mammals Snowpack [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology environment/Bioclimatology |
description |
During the cold arctic winter, small mammals like lemmings seek refuge inside the snowpack to keep warm and they dig tunnels in the basal snow layer, usually formed of a soft depth hoar, to find vegetation on which they feed. The snowpack, however, is a heterogenous medium and lemmings should use habitats where snow properties favor their survival and winter reproduction. We determined the impact of snow physical properties on lemming habitat use and reproduction in winter by sampling their winter nests for 13 years and snow properties for 6 years across 4 different habitats (mesic, riparian, shrubland, and wetland) on Bylot Island in the Canadian High Arctic. We found that lemmings use riparian habitat most intensively because snow accumulates more rapidly, the snowpack is the deepest and temperature of the basal snow layer is the highest in this habitat. However, in the deepest snowpacks, the basal depth hoar layer was denser and less developed than in habitats with shallower snowpacks, and those conditions were negatively related to lemming reproduction in winter. Shrubland appeared a habitat of moderate quality for lemmings as it favored a soft basal snow layer and a deep snowpack compared with mesic and wetland, but snow conditions in this habitat critically depend on weather conditions at the beginning of the winter. With climate change, a hardening of the basal layer of the snowpack and a delay in snow accumulation are expected, which could negatively affect the winter habitat of lemmings and be detrimental to their populations. |
author2 |
Centre d'Etudes Nordiques (CEN) Université Laval Québec (ULaval) Takuvik Joint International Laboratory ULAVAL-CNRS Université Laval Québec (ULaval)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Canadian Museum of Nature (CANADA) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Poirier, Mathilde Gauthier, Gilles Domine, Florent Fauteux, Dominique |
author_facet |
Poirier, Mathilde Gauthier, Gilles Domine, Florent Fauteux, Dominique |
author_sort |
Poirier, Mathilde |
title |
Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
title_short |
Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
title_full |
Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
title_fullStr |
Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
title_sort |
lemming winter habitat: the quest for warm and soft snow |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294/document https://hal.science/hal-04308294/file/Lemming%20winter%20habitat%20-for%20HAL.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y |
genre |
Arctic Bylot Island Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Bylot Island Climate change |
op_source |
ISSN: 0029-8549 EISSN: 1432-1939 Oecologia https://hal.science/hal-04308294 Oecologia, 2023, 202 (2), pp.211-225. ⟨10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294 https://hal.science/hal-04308294/document https://hal.science/hal-04308294/file/Lemming%20winter%20habitat%20-for%20HAL.pdf doi:10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y |
op_rights |
http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/licences/copyright/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05385-y |
container_title |
Oecologia |
container_volume |
202 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
211 |
op_container_end_page |
225 |
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1786824591397617664 |