Quantifying effects of snow depth on caribou winter range selection and movement in Arctic Alaska.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Caribou and reindeer across the Arctic spend more than two thirds of their lives moving in snow. Yet snow-specific mechanisms driving their winter ecology and potentially influencing herd health and movement patterns are not well known. Integrative research coupling snow and wildlife sciences using observations, models, and wildlife tracking technologies can help fill this knowledge void.

Methods

Here, we quantified the effects of snow depth on caribou winter range selection and movement. We used location data of Central Arctic Herd (CAH) caribou in Arctic Alaska collected from 2014 to 2020 and spatially distributed and temporally evolving snow depth data produced by SnowModel. These landscape-scale (90 m), daily snow depth data reproduced the observed spatial sno

SUBMITTER: Pedersen SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8456671 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature