| Title: | Stable body size of Alpine ungulates |
| Author(s): | Buntgen U; Jenny H; Galvan JD; Piermattei A; Krusic PJ; Bollmann K; |
| Address: | "Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place CB2 3EN, UK. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zurcherstr. 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland. Global Change Research Centre (CzechGlobe), 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Department of Wildlife and Fishery Service Grisons, Canton of Grisons, Loestrasse 14, 7001 Chur, Switzerland. Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2054-5703 (Print) 2054-5703 (Electronic) 2054-5703 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "In many species, decreasing body size has been associated with increasing temperatures. Although climate-induced phenotypic shifts, and evolutionary impacts, can affect the structure and functioning of marine and terrestrial ecosystems through biological and metabolic rules, evidence for shrinking body size is often challenged by (i) relatively short intervals of observation, (ii) a limited number of individuals, and (iii) confinement to small and isolated populations. To overcome these issues and provide important multi-species, long-term information for conservation managers and scientists, we compiled and analysed 222 961 measurements of eviscerated body weight, 170 729 measurements of hind foot length and 145 980 measurements of lower jaw length, in the four most abundant Alpine ungulate species: ibex (Capra ibex), chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). Regardless of age, sex and phylogeny, the body mass and size of these sympatric animals, from the eastern Swiss Alps, remained stable between 1991 and 2013. Neither global warming nor local hunting influenced the fitness of the wild ungulates studied at a detectable level. However, we cannot rule out possible counteracting effects of enhanced nutritional resources associated with longer and warmer growing seasons, as well as the animals' ability to migrate along extensive elevational gradients in the highly diversified alpine landscape of this study" |
| Keywords: | Alpine ungulates Bergmann's rule biometric monitoring climate change metabolic rate organism shrinking;Animals; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEBuntgen, Ulf Jenny, Hannes Galvan, J Diego Piermattei, Alma Krusic, Paul J Bollmann, Kurt eng England 2020/09/03 R Soc Open Sci. 2020 Jul 15; 7(7):200196. doi: 10.1098/rsos.200196. eCollection 2020 Jul" |
