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Confounded winter and spring phenoclimatology on large herbivore ranges

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Abstract

Annual variation in winter severity and growing season vegetation dynamics appear to influence the demography of temperate herbivores but parsing winter from spring effects requires independent metrics of environmental conditions specific to each season. We tested for independence in annual variation amongst four common metrics used to describe winter severity and early growing season vegetation dynamics across the entire spatial distribution of elk (Cervus elaphus) in Wyoming from 1989 to 2006. Winter conditions and early growing season dynamics were correlated in a specific way. Winters with snow cover that ended early tended to be followed by early, but slow, rises in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), while long winters with extended periods of snow cover were often followed by late and rapid rises in NDVI. Across the 35 elk ranges, 0.4–86.8 % of the variation in the rate of increase in NDVI’s in spring was explained by the date snow cover disappeared from SNOTEL stations. Because phenoclimatological metrics are correlated across seasons and shifting due to climate change, identifying environmental constraints on herbivore fitness, particularly migratory species, is more difficult than previously recognized.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Science Foundation Ecology of Infectious Disease grant #1067129 and by a grant from the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. We are grateful to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for providing spatial data on elk seasonal ranges. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, 325 Biological Sciences East, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    David Christianson

  2. U. S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Robert W. Klaver

  3. Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Physiology and Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA

    Arthur Middleton

  4. U.S Geological Survey, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA

    Matthew Kauffman

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  1. David Christianson
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Correspondence to David Christianson.

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Christianson, D., Klaver, R.W., Middleton, A. et al. Confounded winter and spring phenoclimatology on large herbivore ranges. Landscape Ecol 28, 427–437 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-012-9840-2

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