Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Spatial variation in Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus) populations around the Hall Basin
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology. University of Oviedo, Spain; University of Pretoria, South Africa.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9737-8242
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology. Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8270-7613
Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 82017 (English)In: Polar Biology, ISSN 0722-4060, E-ISSN 1432-2056, Vol. 40, no 10, p. 2113-2118Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Arctic environments have relatively simple ecosystems. Yet, we still lack knowledge of the spatio-temporal dynamics of many Arctic organisms and how they are affected by local and regional processes. The Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus) is a large lagomorph endemic to high Arctic environments in Canada and Greenland. Current knowledge about this herbivore is scarce and the temporal and spatial dynamics of their populations are poorly understood. Here, we present observations on Arctic hares in two sites on north Greenland (Hall and Washington lands) and one adjacent site on Ellesmere Island (Judge Daly Promontory). We recorded a large range of group sizes from 1 to 135 individuals, as well as a substantial variation in hare densities among the three sites (Hall land: 0 animals/100 km(2), Washington land 14.5-186.7 animals/100 km(2), Judge Daly Promontory 0.18-2.95 animals/100 km(2)). However, pellet counts suggested that both Hall land and Judge Daly Promontory hosted larger populations at other times. We suggest that our results could have been caused by three spatially differentiated populations with asynchronous population fluctuations. With food limitation being a likely driver behind the observed variation, we argue that food limitation likely interacts with predation and competition in shaping the spatial dynamics of Arctic hares in this region.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. Vol. 40, no 10, p. 2113-2118
Keywords [en]
Synchrony, Population dynamics, Geographic variation, Ellesmere Island, North Greenland, Lagomorpha
National Category
Biological Sciences
Research subject
Systematic Zoology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-147849DOI: 10.1007/s00300-017-2116-1ISI: 000411873100017OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-147849DiVA, id: diva2:1153337
Available from: 2017-10-30 Created: 2017-10-30 Last updated: 2022-02-28Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Dalerum, FredrikDalén, LoveMeijer, TomasPečnerová, PatríciaAngerbjörn, Anders

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Dalerum, FredrikDalén, LoveMeijer, TomasPečnerová, PatríciaAngerbjörn, Anders
By organisation
Department of Zoology
In the same journal
Polar Biology
Biological Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 317 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf