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Climatic warming has direct implications for fire-dominated disturbance patterns in northern ecosystems. A transforming wildfire regime is altering plant composition and successional patterns, thus affecting the distribution and potentially the abundance of large herbivores. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are an important subsistence resource for communities throughout the north and a species that depends on terrestrial lichen in late-successional forests and tundra systems. Projected increases in area burned and reductions in stand ages may reduce lichen availability within caribou winter ranges. Sufficient reductions in lichen abundance could alter the capacity of these areas to support caribou populations. To assess...
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Nutritional restrictions in winter may reduce the availability of protein for reproduction and survival in northern ungulates. We refined a technique that uses recently voided excreta on snow to assess protein status in wild caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in late winter. Our study was the first application of this non-invasive, isotopic approach to assess protein status of wild caribou by determining dietary and endogenous contributions of nitrogen (N) to urinary urea. We used isotopic ratios of N (?15N) in urine and fecal samples to estimate the proportion of urea N derived from body N (p-UN) in pregnant, adult females of the Chisana Herd, a small population that ranged across the Alaska-Yukon border. We took advantage...
Categories: Data,
Publication;
Types: Citation,
Downloadable,
Map Service,
OGC WFS Layer,
OGC WMS Layer,
Shapefile;
Tags: Baseline 5-Data,
Caribou,
Chisana Herd,
Mammals,
Monitoring 1-Changes in Plant and Animal Distribution: Fauna, All tags...
Species of Concern: Mammals, Fewer tags
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Nutritional restrictions in winter may reduce the availability of protein for reproduction and survival in northern ungulates. We refined a technique that uses recently voided excreta on snow to assess protein status in wild caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in late winter. Our study was the first application of this non-invasive, isotopic approach to assess protein status of wild caribou by determining dietary and endogenous contributions of nitrogen (N) to urinary urea. We used isotopic ratios of N (?15N) in urine and fecal samples to estimate the proportion of urea N derived from body N (p-UN) in pregnant, adult females of the Chisana Herd, a small population that ranged across the Alaska-Yukon border. We took advantage...
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