Environmental, biological and anthropogenic effects on grizzly bear body size: temporal and spatial considerations

Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Gordon B Stenhouse²  Aaron BA Shafer⁶  Greg J McDermid⁴  Jerome Cranston³  John Boulanger⁵  Marc RL Cattet¹  Scott E Nielsen⁷ 

[1]Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5B4, Canada

[2]Foothills Research Institute, Hinton, Alberta T7V 1X6, Canada

[3]Arctos Ecological Services, Hinton, Alberta T7V 1H9, Canada

[4]Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada

[5]Integrated Ecological Research, Nelson, BC V1L 5T2, Canada

[6]Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, SE 75240, Sweden

[7]Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1, Canada

关键词: Temporal and spatial heterogeneity;    GPS radiocollar;    Environmental effects;    Silver spoon;    Bear;   

Others  :  1085215
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6785-13-31

 received in 2013-04-03, accepted in 2013-09-06,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Individual body growth is controlled in large part by the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of, and competition for, resources. Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos L.) are an excellent species for studying the effects of resource heterogeneity and maternal effects (i.e. silver spoon) on life history traits such as body size because their habitats are highly variable in space and time. Here, we evaluated influences on body size of grizzly bears in Alberta, Canada by testing six factors that accounted for spatial and temporal heterogeneity in environments during maternal, natal and ‘capture’ (recent) environments. After accounting for intrinsic biological factors (age, sex), we examined how body size, measured in mass, length and body condition, was influenced by: (a) population density; (b) regional habitat productivity; (c) inter-annual variability in productivity (including silver spoon effects); (d) local habitat quality; (e) human footprint (disturbances); and (f) landscape change.

Results

We found sex and age explained the most variance in body mass, condition and length (R² from 0.48–0.64). Inter-annual variability in climate the year before and of birth (silver spoon effects) had detectable effects on the three-body size metrics (R² from 0.04–0.07); both maternal (year before birth) and natal (year of birth) effects of precipitation and temperature were related with body size. Local heterogeneity in habitat quality also explained variance in body mass and condition (R² from 0.01–0.08), while annual rate of landscape change explained additional variance in body length (R² of 0.03). Human footprint and population density had no observed effect on body size.

Conclusions

These results illustrated that body size patterns of grizzly bears, while largely affected by basic biological characteristics (age and sex), were also influenced by regional environmental gradients the year before, and of, the individual’s birth thus illustrating silver spoon effects. The magnitude of the silver spoon effects was on par with the influence of contemporary regional habitat productivity, which showed that both temporal and spatial influences explain in part body size patterns in grizzly bears. Because smaller bears were found in colder and less-productive environments, we hypothesize that warming global temperatures may positively affect body mass of interior bears.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Nielsen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

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