Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer

Global warming is expected to cause earlier springs and increased primary productivity in the Arctic. These changes may improve food availability for Arctic herbivores, but may also have negative effects by generating a mismatch between the surge of high quality food in the spring and the timing of...

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Published in:PLoS ONE
Main Authors: Tveraa, Torkild, Stien, Audun, Bårdsen, Bård-J., Fauchald, Per
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579868
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23451049
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3579868 2023-05-15T14:51:43+02:00 Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer Tveraa, Torkild Stien, Audun Bårdsen, Bård-J. Fauchald, Per 2013-02-22 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579868 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23451049 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579868 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23451049 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450 2013-09-04T20:13:41Z Global warming is expected to cause earlier springs and increased primary productivity in the Arctic. These changes may improve food availability for Arctic herbivores, but may also have negative effects by generating a mismatch between the surge of high quality food in the spring and the timing of reproduction. We analyzed a 10 year dataset of satellite derived measures of vegetation green-up, population densities, calf body masses and female reproductive success in 19 reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) populations in Northern Norway. An early onset of spring and high peak plant productivity had positive effects on calf autumn body masses and female reproductive success. In addition, body masses and reproductive success were both negatively related to population density. The quantity of food available, as determined by the onset of vegetation green-up and plant productivity over the summer were the main drivers of body mass growth and reproductive success. We found no evidence for an effect of the speed of spring green-up. Nor did we detect a negative mismatch between early springs and subsequent recruitment. Effects of global warming on plant productivity and onset of spring is likely to positively affect sub-Arctic reindeer. Text Arctic Global warming Northern Norway Rangifer tarandus PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Norway PLoS ONE 8 2 e56450
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Research Article
spellingShingle Research Article
Tveraa, Torkild
Stien, Audun
Bårdsen, Bård-J.
Fauchald, Per
Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer
topic_facet Research Article
description Global warming is expected to cause earlier springs and increased primary productivity in the Arctic. These changes may improve food availability for Arctic herbivores, but may also have negative effects by generating a mismatch between the surge of high quality food in the spring and the timing of reproduction. We analyzed a 10 year dataset of satellite derived measures of vegetation green-up, population densities, calf body masses and female reproductive success in 19 reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) populations in Northern Norway. An early onset of spring and high peak plant productivity had positive effects on calf autumn body masses and female reproductive success. In addition, body masses and reproductive success were both negatively related to population density. The quantity of food available, as determined by the onset of vegetation green-up and plant productivity over the summer were the main drivers of body mass growth and reproductive success. We found no evidence for an effect of the speed of spring green-up. Nor did we detect a negative mismatch between early springs and subsequent recruitment. Effects of global warming on plant productivity and onset of spring is likely to positively affect sub-Arctic reindeer.
format Text
author Tveraa, Torkild
Stien, Audun
Bårdsen, Bård-J.
Fauchald, Per
author_facet Tveraa, Torkild
Stien, Audun
Bårdsen, Bård-J.
Fauchald, Per
author_sort Tveraa, Torkild
title Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer
title_short Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer
title_full Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer
title_fullStr Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer
title_full_unstemmed Population Densities, Vegetation Green-Up, and Plant Productivity: Impacts on Reproductive Success and Juvenile Body Mass in Reindeer
title_sort population densities, vegetation green-up, and plant productivity: impacts on reproductive success and juvenile body mass in reindeer
publisher Public Library of Science
publishDate 2013
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579868
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23451049
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450
geographic Arctic
Norway
geographic_facet Arctic
Norway
genre Arctic
Global warming
Northern Norway
Rangifer tarandus
genre_facet Arctic
Global warming
Northern Norway
Rangifer tarandus
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579868
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23451049
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450
op_rights This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056450
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