Journal
POPULATION ECOLOGY
Volume 44, Issue 2, Pages 113-120Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1007/s101440200013
Keywords
caribou density dependence; muskox; North Atlantic Oscillation; winter climate
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Following predictions from climatic general circulation models, the effects of perturbations in global climate are expected to be most pronounced in the Northern Hemisphere, Elaborating on a recently developed plant-herbivore-climate model, we explore statistically how different winter climate regimes and density-dependent processes during the past century have affected population dynamics of two arctic ungulate species. Our analyses were performed on the dynamics of six muskox and six caribou populations. In muskoxen, variation in winter climate. mediated through the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), explained up to 24% of the variation in interannual abundance, whereas in caribou up to 16% was explained by the NAO. Muskoxen responded negatively following warm and snowy winters, whereas caribou responded negatively to dry winters. Direct and delayed density dependence was recorded in most populations and explained up to 32% and 90% of variations in abundance of muskoxen and caribou, respectively.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available