Pursuit and escape drive fine-scale movement variation during migration in a temperate alpine ungulate.

ABSTRACT: Climate change reduces snowpack, advances snowmelt phenology, drives summer warming, alters growing season precipitation regimes, and consequently modifies vegetation phenology in mountain systems. Elevational migrants track spatial variation in seasonal plant growth by moving between ranges at different elevations during spring, so climate-driven vegetation change may disrupt historic benefits of migration. Elevational migrants can furthermore cope with short-term environmental variability by undertaking brief vertical movements to refugia when sudden adverse conditions arise. We uncover drivers of fine-scale vertical movement variation during upland migration in an endangered alpine specialist, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis sierrae) using a 20-year study of GPS collar data

SUBMITTER: John C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11219842 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature