Cargando…
Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought
Recent snow droughts associated with unusually warm winters are predicted to increase in frequency and affect species dependent upon snowpack for winter survival. Changes in populations of some cold‐adapted species have been attributed to heat stress or indirect effects on habitat from unusually war...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7863385/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33598129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7126 |
_version_ | 1783647482810466304 |
---|---|
author | Johnston, Aaron N. Christophersen, Roger G. Beever, Erik A. Ransom, Jason I. |
author_facet | Johnston, Aaron N. Christophersen, Roger G. Beever, Erik A. Ransom, Jason I. |
author_sort | Johnston, Aaron N. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Recent snow droughts associated with unusually warm winters are predicted to increase in frequency and affect species dependent upon snowpack for winter survival. Changes in populations of some cold‐adapted species have been attributed to heat stress or indirect effects on habitat from unusually warm summers, but little is known about the importance of winter weather to population dynamics and how responses to snow drought vary among sympatric species. We evaluated changes in abundance of hoary marmots (Marmota caligata) over a period that included a year of record‐low snowpack to identify mechanisms associated with weather and snowpack. To consider interspecies comparisons, our analysis used the same a priori model set as a concurrent study that evaluated responses of American pikas (Ochotona princeps) to weather and snowpack in the same study area of North Cascades National Park, Washington, USA. We hypothesized that marmot abundance reflected mechanisms related to heat stress, cold stress, cold exposure without an insulating snowpack, snowpack duration, atmospheric moisture, growing‐season precipitation, or select combinations of these mechanisms. Changes in marmot abundances included a 74% decline from 2007 to 2016 and were best explained by an interaction of chronic dryness with exposure to acute cold without snowpack in winter. Physiological stress during hibernation from exposure to cold, dry air appeared to be the most likely mechanism of change in marmot abundance. Alternative mechanisms associated with changes to winter weather, including early emergence from hibernation or altered vegetation dynamics, had less support. A post hoc assessment of vegetative phenology and productivity did not support vegetation dynamics as a primary driver of marmot abundance across years. Although marmot and pika abundances were explained by strikingly similar models over periods of many years, details of the mechanisms involved likely differ between species because pika abundances increased in areas where marmots declined. Such differences may lead to diverging geographic distributions of these species as global change continues. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7863385 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78633852021-02-16 Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought Johnston, Aaron N. Christophersen, Roger G. Beever, Erik A. Ransom, Jason I. Ecol Evol Original Research Recent snow droughts associated with unusually warm winters are predicted to increase in frequency and affect species dependent upon snowpack for winter survival. Changes in populations of some cold‐adapted species have been attributed to heat stress or indirect effects on habitat from unusually warm summers, but little is known about the importance of winter weather to population dynamics and how responses to snow drought vary among sympatric species. We evaluated changes in abundance of hoary marmots (Marmota caligata) over a period that included a year of record‐low snowpack to identify mechanisms associated with weather and snowpack. To consider interspecies comparisons, our analysis used the same a priori model set as a concurrent study that evaluated responses of American pikas (Ochotona princeps) to weather and snowpack in the same study area of North Cascades National Park, Washington, USA. We hypothesized that marmot abundance reflected mechanisms related to heat stress, cold stress, cold exposure without an insulating snowpack, snowpack duration, atmospheric moisture, growing‐season precipitation, or select combinations of these mechanisms. Changes in marmot abundances included a 74% decline from 2007 to 2016 and were best explained by an interaction of chronic dryness with exposure to acute cold without snowpack in winter. Physiological stress during hibernation from exposure to cold, dry air appeared to be the most likely mechanism of change in marmot abundance. Alternative mechanisms associated with changes to winter weather, including early emergence from hibernation or altered vegetation dynamics, had less support. A post hoc assessment of vegetative phenology and productivity did not support vegetation dynamics as a primary driver of marmot abundance across years. Although marmot and pika abundances were explained by strikingly similar models over periods of many years, details of the mechanisms involved likely differ between species because pika abundances increased in areas where marmots declined. Such differences may lead to diverging geographic distributions of these species as global change continues. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-12-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7863385/ /pubmed/33598129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7126 Text en Published 2020. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons 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. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Johnston, Aaron N. Christophersen, Roger G. Beever, Erik A. Ransom, Jason I. Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
title | Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
title_full | Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
title_fullStr | Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
title_full_unstemmed | Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
title_short | Freezing in a warming climate: Marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
title_sort | freezing in a warming climate: marked declines of a subnivean hibernator after a snow drought |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7863385/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33598129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7126 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT johnstonaaronn freezinginawarmingclimatemarkeddeclinesofasubniveanhibernatorafterasnowdrought AT christophersenrogerg freezinginawarmingclimatemarkeddeclinesofasubniveanhibernatorafterasnowdrought AT beevererika freezinginawarmingclimatemarkeddeclinesofasubniveanhibernatorafterasnowdrought AT ransomjasoni freezinginawarmingclimatemarkeddeclinesofasubniveanhibernatorafterasnowdrought |