Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden

Spatially synchronous fluctuations of animal populations have profound ecological consequences, especially in northern latitudes. Spatially coupled fluctuations are often seen in small rodent populations, albeit with local and regional variations. While both resource limitation and predation influen...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Vigués, Jan, Norén, Karin, Wilkinson, Clive, Stoessel, Marianne, Angerbjörn, Anders, Dalerum, Fredrik
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2022
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositório:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/279398
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Microtine rodents
Norwegian learning
Population cycles
Population synchrony
Spatial variation
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spelling Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern SwedenVigués, JanNorén, KarinWilkinson, CliveStoessel, MarianneAngerbjörn, AndersDalerum, FredrikMicrotine rodentsNorwegian learningPopulation cyclesPopulation synchronySpatial variationSpatially synchronous fluctuations of animal populations have profound ecological consequences, especially in northern latitudes. Spatially coupled fluctuations are often seen in small rodent populations, albeit with local and regional variations. While both resource limitation and predation influence rodent dynamics, their relative importance for generating spatial variation is less clear, particularly during winter. In this study, we quantify spatial variation in winter abundance of the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) across three ecologically connected mountain areas in northern Sweden and evaluate whether the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation influences such variation. Our data included observations of predated and nonpredated winter nests as well as environmental characteristics of nest locations and nest predation. While the direction of annual changes in lemming nest abundance was perfectly synchronized among the three areas, there were differences in nest abundance, potentially caused by contrasting amplitudes of temporal fluctuations in lemming winter populations. Mustelid predation was positively associated with decreasing lemming populations but did not differ in occurrence among the three areas. Lemming nests were predominantly observed in meadows, whereas areas prone to flooding and close to the tree line were underrepresented. Mustelid predation was most common close to the tree line, but not associated with geomorphological characteristics related to snow depth. We suggest that the observed differences in lemming winter abundances were caused by variations in the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation in the three mountain areas. We encourage further studies evaluating how the relative strength of different processes influence local population regulation, and how such processes influence spatial variation in animal population dynamics at different spatial scales.This study was funded by the Oscar and Lili Lamm Memorial Foundation (FO2018-0022), the Wildlife Management Fund (802-0199-18) by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, WWF Sweden, Fjällräven International AB, and EU Interreg Felles Nord II (20203530).Ecological Society of AmericaSwedish Environmental Protection AgencyConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]2022202220222022info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Publisher's versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Ingléshttp://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140Síinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/2793982026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
title Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
spellingShingle Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
Vigués, Jan
Microtine rodents
Norwegian learning
Population cycles
Population synchrony
Spatial variation
title_short Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
title_full Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
title_fullStr Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
title_sort Abundance, predation, and habitat associations of lemming winter nests in northern Sweden
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Vigués, Jan
Norén, Karin
Wilkinson, Clive
Stoessel, Marianne
Angerbjörn, Anders
Dalerum, Fredrik
author Vigués, Jan
author_facet Vigués, Jan
Norén, Karin
Wilkinson, Clive
Stoessel, Marianne
Angerbjörn, Anders
Dalerum, Fredrik
author_role author
author2 Norén, Karin
Wilkinson, Clive
Stoessel, Marianne
Angerbjörn, Anders
Dalerum, Fredrik
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Microtine rodents
Norwegian learning
Population cycles
Population synchrony
Spatial variation
topic Microtine rodents
Norwegian learning
Population cycles
Population synchrony
Spatial variation
description Spatially synchronous fluctuations of animal populations have profound ecological consequences, especially in northern latitudes. Spatially coupled fluctuations are often seen in small rodent populations, albeit with local and regional variations. While both resource limitation and predation influence rodent dynamics, their relative importance for generating spatial variation is less clear, particularly during winter. In this study, we quantify spatial variation in winter abundance of the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) across three ecologically connected mountain areas in northern Sweden and evaluate whether the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation influences such variation. Our data included observations of predated and nonpredated winter nests as well as environmental characteristics of nest locations and nest predation. While the direction of annual changes in lemming nest abundance was perfectly synchronized among the three areas, there were differences in nest abundance, potentially caused by contrasting amplitudes of temporal fluctuations in lemming winter populations. Mustelid predation was positively associated with decreasing lemming populations but did not differ in occurrence among the three areas. Lemming nests were predominantly observed in meadows, whereas areas prone to flooding and close to the tree line were underrepresented. Mustelid predation was most common close to the tree line, but not associated with geomorphological characteristics related to snow depth. We suggest that the observed differences in lemming winter abundances were caused by variations in the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down regulation in the three mountain areas. We encourage further studies evaluating how the relative strength of different processes influence local population regulation, and how such processes influence spatial variation in animal population dynamics at different spatial scales.
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022
2022
2022
2022
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Publisher's version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279398
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv http://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4140
Sí
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Ecological Society of America
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Ecological Society of America
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15.812429

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