Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change?
Climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats for populations and a challenge for individual behavior, interactions and survival. Predator–prey interactions are modified by climate processes. In the northern latitudes, strong seasonality is changing and the main predicted feature...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6772078/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811858 https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6772078 2023-05-15T16:12:03+02:00 Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? YLÖNEN, Hannu HAAPAKOSKI, Marko SIEVERT, Thorbjörn SUNDELL, Janne 2019-07-29 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6772078/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811858 https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6772078/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811858 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 © 2019 The Authors. Integrative Zoology published by International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Review Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 2019-10-13T00:18:38Z Climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats for populations and a challenge for individual behavior, interactions and survival. Predator–prey interactions are modified by climate processes. In the northern latitudes, strong seasonality is changing and the main predicted feature is shortening and instability of winter. Vole populations in the boreal Fennoscandia exhibit multiannual cycles. High amplitude peak numbers of voles and dramatic population lows alternate in 3–5‐year cycles shortening from North to South. One key factor, or driver, promoting the population crash and causing extreme extended lows, is suggested to be predation by the least weasel. We review the arms race between prey voles and weasels through the multiannual density fluctuation, affected by climate change, and especially the changes in the duration and stability of snow cover. For ground‐dwelling small mammals, snow provides thermoregulation and shelter for nest sites, and helps them hide from predators. Predicted increases in the instability of winter forms a major challenge for species with coat color change between brown summer camouflage and white winter coat. One of these is the least weasel, Mustela nivalis nivalis. Increased vulnerability of wrong‐colored weasels to predation affects vole populations and may have dramatic effects on vole dynamics. It may have cascading effects on other small rodent–predator interactions and even on plant–animal interactions and forest dynamics. Text Fennoscandia Fennoscandian PubMed Central (PMC) Integrative Zoology 14 4 327 340 |
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Review YLÖNEN, Hannu HAAPAKOSKI, Marko SIEVERT, Thorbjörn SUNDELL, Janne Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
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Review |
description |
Climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats for populations and a challenge for individual behavior, interactions and survival. Predator–prey interactions are modified by climate processes. In the northern latitudes, strong seasonality is changing and the main predicted feature is shortening and instability of winter. Vole populations in the boreal Fennoscandia exhibit multiannual cycles. High amplitude peak numbers of voles and dramatic population lows alternate in 3–5‐year cycles shortening from North to South. One key factor, or driver, promoting the population crash and causing extreme extended lows, is suggested to be predation by the least weasel. We review the arms race between prey voles and weasels through the multiannual density fluctuation, affected by climate change, and especially the changes in the duration and stability of snow cover. For ground‐dwelling small mammals, snow provides thermoregulation and shelter for nest sites, and helps them hide from predators. Predicted increases in the instability of winter forms a major challenge for species with coat color change between brown summer camouflage and white winter coat. One of these is the least weasel, Mustela nivalis nivalis. Increased vulnerability of wrong‐colored weasels to predation affects vole populations and may have dramatic effects on vole dynamics. It may have cascading effects on other small rodent–predator interactions and even on plant–animal interactions and forest dynamics. |
format |
Text |
author |
YLÖNEN, Hannu HAAPAKOSKI, Marko SIEVERT, Thorbjörn SUNDELL, Janne |
author_facet |
YLÖNEN, Hannu HAAPAKOSKI, Marko SIEVERT, Thorbjörn SUNDELL, Janne |
author_sort |
YLÖNEN, Hannu |
title |
Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
title_short |
Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
title_full |
Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
title_fullStr |
Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
title_sort |
voles and weasels in the boreal fennoscandian small mammal community: what happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change? |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6772078/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811858 https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 |
genre |
Fennoscandia Fennoscandian |
genre_facet |
Fennoscandia Fennoscandian |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6772078/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811858 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 |
op_rights |
© 2019 The Authors. Integrative Zoology published by International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12388 |
container_title |
Integrative Zoology |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
4 |
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327 |
op_container_end_page |
340 |
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1765997273322356736 |