Abstract
AbstractAs global warming advances, there is a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on ecosystems. In the Arctic, more frequent unseasonal warm spells and rain‐on‐snow events in winter cause changes in snow‐pack properties, including ground icing. Such extreme weather events are known to have severe effects across trophic levels, for instance, causing die‐offs of large herbivores. However, the extent to which individuals and populations are able to buffer such events through behavioral plasticity is poorly understood. Here, we analyze responses in space use to rain‐on‐snow and icing events, and their fitness correlates, in wild reindeer in high‐Arctic Svalbard. Range displacement among GPS‐collared females occurred mainly in icy winters to areas with less ice, lower over‐winter body mass loss, lower mortality rate, and higher subsequent fecundity, than the departure area. Our study provides rare empirical evidence that mammals may buffer negative effects of climate change and extreme weather events by adjusting behavior in highly stochastic environments. Under global warming, behavioral buffering may be important for the long‐term population persistence in mobile species with long generation time and therefore limited ability for rapid evolutionary adaptation.
Highlights
Ecological effects of extreme weather events such as summer heat waves (Barriopedro et al 2011), hurricanes (Gaillard et al 2003), droughts (Garel et al 2004), and flooding (Rouse et al.1997) are expected to increase with global warming
Movement responses to the ground ice gradient Bihourly movement rates of GPS-m arked reindeer declined from mid-O ctober to January in all winters (Fig. 2A)
Organisms may respond to climate change by both evolutionary adaptations and phenotypic plasticity (Parmesan 2006, Boutin and Lane 2014)
Summary
Ecological effects of extreme weather events such as summer heat waves (Barriopedro et al 2011), hurricanes (Gaillard et al 2003), droughts (Garel et al 2004), and flooding (Rouse et al.1997) are expected to increase with global warming This may threaten the long-term persistence of populations, at the edge of the species range (Easterling et al 2000, Parmesan 2000, 2006). One consequence of warmer winters is the increased frequency of mild spells and rain-o n-snow events (Putkonen and Roe 2003, Shabbar and Bonsal 2003, Rennert et al 2009) These extreme weather events cause formation of ice layers in the snow-p ack or ground-fast ice with far reaching ecosystem consequences (Ims and Fuglei 2005, Gilg et al 2009, Hansen et al 2013). A key question for understanding and predicting consequences of climate change is to what degree Arctic ungulates are able to buffer these increasingly common icing events through behavioral plasticity
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