Scavenger community structure along an environmental gradient from boreal forest to alpine tundra in Scandinavia.

Scavengers can have strong impacts on food webs, and awareness of their role in ecosystems has increased during the last decades. In our study, we used baited camera traps to quantify the structure of the winter scavenger community in central Scandinavia across a forest-alpine continuum and assess how climatic conditions affected spatial patterns of species occurrences at baits. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that the main habitat type (forest or alpine tundra) and snow depth was main determinants of the community structure.

Influence of light availability and soil productivity on insect herbivory on bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) leaves following mammalian herbivory.

Vegetative parts of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) are important forage for many boreal forest mammal, bird and insect species. Plant palatability to insects is affected by concentration of nutrients and defense compounds in plants. We expected that palatability of bilberry leaves to insect herbivores is influenced by light availability and soil productivity (both affecting nitrogen concentration and constitutive carbon-based defense compound concentration) and herbivory by mammals (affecting nitrogen concentration and induced carbon-based defense compound concentration).

Phase- and season-dependent changes in social behaviour in cyclic vole populations.

Background: Social behaviour has been linked to hypotheses explaining multiannual population cycles of small rodents. In this paper we aimed to test empirically that the degree of space sharing among adult breeding female voles is higher during the increase phase than in the crash phase, and that the degree of sociality is positively related to population growth rate as suggested by Lambin and Krebs (Oikos 61:126-132, 1991) and Andreassen et al. (Oikos 122:507-515, 2013).

Habitat segregation between brown bears and gray wolves in a human-dominated landscape.

Identifying how sympatric species belonging to the same guild coexist is a major question of community ecology and conservation. Habitat segregation between two species might help reduce the effects of interspecific competition and apex predators are of special interest in this context, because their interactions can have consequences for lower trophic levels. However, habitat segregation between sympatric large carnivores has seldom been studied.

Why Do the Boreal Forest Ecosystems of Northwestern Europe Differ from Those of Western North America?

The boreal forest is one of the largest terrestrial biomes on Earth. Conifers normally dominate the tree layer across the biome, but other aspects of ecosystem structure and dynamics vary geographically. The cause of the conspicuous differences in the understory vegetation and the herbivore-predator cycles between northwestern Europe and western North America presents an enigma.

Surviving winter: Food, but not habitat structure, prevents crashes in cyclic vole populations.

Vole population cycles are a major force driving boreal ecosystem dynamics in northwestern Eurasia. However, our understanding of the impact of winter on these cycles is increasingly uncertain, especially because climate change is affecting snow predictability, quality, and abundance. We examined the role of winter weather and snow conditions, the lack of suitable habitat structure during freeze-thaw periods, and the lack of sufficient food as potential causes for winter population crashes.

Let's stay together? Intrinsic and extrinsic factors involved in pair bond dissolution in a recolonizing wolf population.

For socially monogamous species, breeder bond dissolution has important consequences for population dynamics, but the extent to which extrinsic or intrinsic population factors causes pair dissolution remain poorly understood, especially among carnivores. Using an extensive life-history data set, a survival analysis and competing risks framework, we examined the fate of 153 different wolf (Canis lupus) pairs in the recolonizing Scandinavian wolf population, during 14 winters of snow tracking and DNA monitoring. Wolf pair dissolution was generally linked to a mortality event and was strongly affected by extrinsic (i.

From individuals to population cycles: the role of extrinsic and intrinsic factors in rodent populations.

Rodent population cycles have fascinated scientists for a long time. Among various hypotheses, an interaction of an extrinsic factor (predation) with intrinsic factors (e.g.

Predator-dependent functional response in wolves: from food limitation to surplus killing.

The functional response of a predator describes the change in per capita kill rate to changes in prey density. This response can be influenced by predator densities, giving a predator-dependent functional response. In social carnivores which defend a territory, kill rates also depend on the individual energetic requirements of group members and their contribution to the kill rate.

Bears are simply voles writ large: social structure determines the mechanisms of intrinsic population regulation in mammals.

The literature reveals opposing views regarding the importance of intrinsic population regulation in mammals. Different models have been proposed; adding importance to contrasting life histories, body sizes and social interactions. Here we evaluate current theory based on results from two Scandinavian projects studying two ecologically different mammal species with contrasting body sizes and life history traits: the root vole Microtus oeconomus and the brown bear Ursus arctos.

Concurrent effects of age class and food distribution on immigration success and population dynamics in a small mammal.

During the settlement stage of dispersal, the outcome of conflicts between residents and immigrants should depend on the social organization of resident populations as well as on individual traits of immigrants, such as their age class, body mass and/or behaviour. We have previously shown that spatial distribution of food influences the social organization of female bank voles (Myodes glareolus). Here, we aimed to determine the relative impact of food distribution and immigrant age class on the success and demographic consequences of female bank vole immigration.

Geo-spatial aspects of acceptance of illegal hunting of large carnivores in Scandinavia.

Human-carnivore conflicts are complex and are influenced by: the spatial distribution of the conflict species; the organisation and intensity of management measures such as zoning; historical experience with wildlife; land use patterns; and local cultural traditions. We have used a geographically stratified sampling of social values and attitudes to provide a novel perspective to the human - wildlife conflict. We have focused on acceptance by and disagreements between residents (measured as Potential Conflict Index; PCI) towards illegal hunting of four species of large carnivores (bear, lynx, wolf, wolverine).

The role of colonization in the dynamics of patchy populations of a cyclic vole species.

The crash phase of vole populations with cyclic dynamics regularly leads to vast areas of uninhabited habitats. Yet although the capacity for cyclic voles to re-colonize such empty space is likely to be large and predicted to have become evolved as a distinct life history trait, the processes of colonization and its effect on the spatio-temporal dynamics have been little studied. Here we report from an experiment with root voles (Microtus oeconomus) specifically targeted at quantifying the process of colonization of empty patches from distant source patches and its resultant effect on local vole deme size variation in a patchy landscape.

Local and regional determinants of colonisation-extinction dynamics of a riparian mainland-island root vole metapopulation.

The role of local habitat geometry (habitat area and isolation) in predicting species distribution has become an increasingly more important issue, because habitat loss and fragmentation cause species range contraction and extinction. However, it has also become clear that other factors, in particular regional factors (environmental stochasticity and regional population dynamics), should be taken into account when predicting colonisation and extinction. In a live trapping study of a mainland-island metapopulation of the root vole (Microtus oeconomus) we found extensive occupancy dynamics across 15 riparian islands, but yet an overall balance between colonisation and extinction over 4 years.

Vole preference of bilberry along gradients of simulated moose density and site productivity.

Browsing by large herbivores might either increase or decrease preference for the plant by other herbivores, depending on the plant response. Using a cafeteria test, we studied the preference by root voles (Microtus oeconomus [Pallas, 1776]) for bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) previously subjected to 4 levels of simulated moose (Alces alces [Linnaeus, 1758]) density.

Effects of individual condition and habitat quality on natal dispersal behaviour in a small rodent.

1. Individuals should benefit from settling in high-quality habitats, but dispersers born under favourable conditions have a better physical condition and should therefore be more successful at settling in high-quality habitats. 2.

Demographic side effects of selective hunting in ungulates and carnivores.

Selective harvesting regimes are often implemented because age and sex classes contribute differently to population dynamics and hunters show preferences associated with body size and trophy value. We reviewed the literature on how such cropping regimes affect the demography of the remaining population (here termed demographic side effects). First, we examined the implications of removing a large proportion of a specific age or sex class.

Male turnover reduces population growth: an enclosure experiment on voles.

Turnover of individuals is assumed to cause disruptions of social organization, followed by reduced reproduction and survival. We tested how male turnover (removal of resident males and their replacement by unfamiliar males) affected population performance in experimental root vole (Microtus oeconomus) populations. The treatment simulated predation of adult males, with the subsequent replacement by immigrants, and provided insight into the interaction between extrinsic (i.

Density-dependent dispersal and spatial population dynamics.

The synchronization of the dynamics of spatially subdivided populations is of both fundamental and applied interest in population biology. Based on theoretical studies, dispersal movements have been inferred to be one of the most general causes of population synchrony, yet no empirical study has mapped distance-dependent estimates of movement rates on the actual pattern of synchrony in species that are known to exhibit population synchrony. Northern vole and lemming species are particularly well-known for their spatially synchronized population dynamics.

The return of the giants: ecological effects of an increasing elephant population.

Northern Botswana and adjacent areas, have the world's largest population of African elephant (Loxodonta africana). However, a 100 years ago elephants were rare following excessive hunting. Simultaneously, ungulate populations were severely reduced by decease.

Foraging behaviour of the root vole Microtus oeconomus in fragmented habitats.

The effect of habitat fragmentation on spatial foraging behaviour in the root vole Microtus oeconomus was investigated in seven experimental populations. Four of the populations were established in large, continuous blocks (30 × 95 m) of meadow habitat (treatment plots), whereas the three remaining populations had six small rectangular habitat fragments (30 × 7.5 m) with variable inter-fragment distances (control plots).