Kelp and seaweed feeding by High-Arctic wild reindeer under extreme winter conditions

Polar research

BrageBremsetHansen²  Ronny Aanes³ 

[1] Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management, Tungasletta 2NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway Correspondence;Centre for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Høgskoleringen 5NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway;Norwegian Polar Institute, Polar Environmental CentreNO-9296 Tromsø, Norway

关键词: Climate change;    ground-ice;    High Arctic;    marine algae;    Rangifer tarandus;    terrestrial herbivore.;   

DOI  :  10.3402/polar.v31i0.17258

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

One challenge in current Arctic ecological research is to understand and predict how wildlife may respond to increased frequencies of “extreme” weather events. Heavy rain-on-snow (ROS) is one such extreme phenomenon associated with winter warming that is not well studied but has potentially profound ecosystem effects through changes in snow-pack properties and ice formation. Here, we document how ice-locked pastures following substantial amounts of ROS forced coastal Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) to use marine habitat in late winter 2010. A thick coat of ground ice covered 98% of the lowland ranges, almost completely blocking access to terrestrial forage. Accordingly, a population census revealed that 13% of the total population (n=26 of 206 individuals) and 21% of one sub-population were feeding on washed-up kelp and seaweed on the sea-ice foot. Calves were overrepresented among the individuals that applied this foraging strategy, which probably represents a last attempt to avoid st...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC