Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore
Arctic tundra vegetation is affected by rapid climatic change and fluctuating herbivore population sizes. Broad-billed geese, after their arrival in spring, feed intensively on belowground rhizomes, thereby disturbing soil, mosses, and vascular plant vegetation. Understanding of how springtime snowm...
Published in: | Ecosphere |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32292 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4729 |
id |
ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/32292 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/32292 2024-01-28T09:58:43+01:00 Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore Eischeid, Isabell Madsen, Jesper Ims, Rolf Anker Nolet, Bart A. Pedersen, Åshild Ønvik Schreven, Kees H.T. Soininen, Eeva Marjatta Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles Ravolainen, Virve 2023-12-17 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32292 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4729 eng eng Wiley Ecosphere Eischeid, Madsen, Ims, Nolet, Pedersen, Schreven, Soininen, Yoccoz, Ravolainen. Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore. Ecosphere. 2023;14(12) FRIDAID 2214823 doi:10.1002/ecs2.4729 2150-8925 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32292 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2023 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4729 2024-01-04T00:08:06Z Arctic tundra vegetation is affected by rapid climatic change and fluctuating herbivore population sizes. Broad-billed geese, after their arrival in spring, feed intensively on belowground rhizomes, thereby disturbing soil, mosses, and vascular plant vegetation. Understanding of how springtime snowmelt patterns drive goose behavior is thus key to better predict the state of Arctic tundra ecosystems. Here, we analyzed how snowmelt progression affected springtime habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) in Svalbard during 2019. Our analysis, based on GPS telemetry data and field observations of geese, plot-based assessments of signs of vegetation disturbance, and drone and satellite images, covered two spatial scales (fine scale: extent 0.3 km 2 , resolution 5 cm; valley scale: extent 30 km 2 , resolution 10 m). We show that pink-footed goose habitat selection and signs of vegetation disturbance were correlated during the spring pre-breeding period; disturbances were most prevalent in the moss tundra vegetation class and areas free from snow early in the season. The results were consistent across the spatial scales and methods (GPS telemetry and field observations). We estimated that 23.4% of moss tundra and 11.2% of dwarf-shrub heath vegetation in the valley showed signs of disturbance by pink-footed geese during the study period. This study demonstrates that aerial imagery and telemetry can provide data to detect disturbance hotspots caused by pink-footed geese. Our study provides empirical evidence to general notions about implications of climate change and snow season changes that include increased variability in precipitation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Anser brachyrhynchus Arctic Arctic Climate change Pink-footed Goose Svalbard Tundra University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Svalbard Ecosphere 14 12 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 Eischeid, Isabell Madsen, Jesper Ims, Rolf Anker Nolet, Bart A. Pedersen, Åshild Ønvik Schreven, Kees H.T. Soininen, Eeva Marjatta Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles Ravolainen, Virve Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore |
topic_facet |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 |
description |
Arctic tundra vegetation is affected by rapid climatic change and fluctuating herbivore population sizes. Broad-billed geese, after their arrival in spring, feed intensively on belowground rhizomes, thereby disturbing soil, mosses, and vascular plant vegetation. Understanding of how springtime snowmelt patterns drive goose behavior is thus key to better predict the state of Arctic tundra ecosystems. Here, we analyzed how snowmelt progression affected springtime habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) in Svalbard during 2019. Our analysis, based on GPS telemetry data and field observations of geese, plot-based assessments of signs of vegetation disturbance, and drone and satellite images, covered two spatial scales (fine scale: extent 0.3 km 2 , resolution 5 cm; valley scale: extent 30 km 2 , resolution 10 m). We show that pink-footed goose habitat selection and signs of vegetation disturbance were correlated during the spring pre-breeding period; disturbances were most prevalent in the moss tundra vegetation class and areas free from snow early in the season. The results were consistent across the spatial scales and methods (GPS telemetry and field observations). We estimated that 23.4% of moss tundra and 11.2% of dwarf-shrub heath vegetation in the valley showed signs of disturbance by pink-footed geese during the study period. This study demonstrates that aerial imagery and telemetry can provide data to detect disturbance hotspots caused by pink-footed geese. Our study provides empirical evidence to general notions about implications of climate change and snow season changes that include increased variability in precipitation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Eischeid, Isabell Madsen, Jesper Ims, Rolf Anker Nolet, Bart A. Pedersen, Åshild Ønvik Schreven, Kees H.T. Soininen, Eeva Marjatta Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles Ravolainen, Virve |
author_facet |
Eischeid, Isabell Madsen, Jesper Ims, Rolf Anker Nolet, Bart A. Pedersen, Åshild Ønvik Schreven, Kees H.T. Soininen, Eeva Marjatta Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles Ravolainen, Virve |
author_sort |
Eischeid, Isabell |
title |
Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore |
title_short |
Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore |
title_full |
Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore |
title_fullStr |
Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore |
title_sort |
snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an arctic avian herbivore |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32292 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4729 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Anser brachyrhynchus Arctic Arctic Climate change Pink-footed Goose Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Anser brachyrhynchus Arctic Arctic Climate change Pink-footed Goose Svalbard Tundra |
op_relation |
Ecosphere Eischeid, Madsen, Ims, Nolet, Pedersen, Schreven, Soininen, Yoccoz, Ravolainen. Snowmelt progression drives habitat selection and vegetation disturbance by an Arctic avian herbivore. Ecosphere. 2023;14(12) FRIDAID 2214823 doi:10.1002/ecs2.4729 2150-8925 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/32292 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4729 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
12 |
_version_ |
1789329948370010112 |