Life on the edge: common slow pace of life but contrasted trajectories of alpine rock ptarmigan populations at their southern margin

Canonne, Coline; Novoa, Claude; Muffat-Joly, Bertrand; Resseguier, Jean; Desmet, Jean-François; Casadesus, Josep Blanch; Arvin-Bérod, Marc; Besnard, Aurélien

doi:10.2981/wlb.00628

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…In effect, our two Alpine populations occur at much higher elevations (1,650-2,100 m asl) than the Scottish population (350-850 m asl). Third, the geographic position of a population within its species range can also affect life-history traits: populations occurring at range margins should theoretically exhibit a slower pace of life than those in the core zones (Hampe and Petit, 2005;Canonne et al, 2020). The difference reported here between Scotland and the Alps does not support this third theoretical prediction, but the latter could still explain the differences between Vercors, which is peripheral, and Valais, which is more central.…”

Section: Comparison Across the Rangementioning

confidence: 62%

Variation in Demography and Life-History Strategies Across the Range of a Declining Mountain Bird Species

Barras

Blache²,

Schaub

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Species- and population-specific responses to their environment may depend to a large extent on the spatial variation in life-history traits and in demographic processes of local population dynamics. Yet, those parameters and their variability remain largely unknown for many cold-adapted species, which are exposed to particularly rapid rates of environmental change. Here, we compared the demographic traits and dynamics for an emblematic bird species of European mountain ecosystems, the ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus). Using integrated population models fitted in a Bayesian framework, we estimated the survival probability, productivity and immigration of two populations from the Western European Alps, in France (over 11 years) and Switzerland (over 6 years). Juvenile apparent survival was lower and immigration rate higher in the Swiss compared to the French population, with the temporal variation in population growth rate driven by different demographic processes. Yet, when compared to populations in the northwestern part of the range, in Scotland, these two Alpine populations both showed a much lower productivity and higher adult survival, indicating a slower life-history strategy. Our results suggest that demographic characteristics can substantially vary across the discontinuous range of this passerine species, essentially due to contrasted, possibly locally evolved life-history strategies. This study therefore raises the question of whether flexibility in life-history traits is widespread among boreo-alpine species and if it might provide adaptive potential for coping with current environmental change.

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Section: Comparison Across the Rangementioning

confidence: 62%

Variation in Demography and Life-History Strategies Across the Range of a Declining Mountain Bird Species

Barras

Blache²,

Schaub

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Other types of anthropogenic impacts that should be avoided or limited in climate refugia include new hydroelectric basins and quarries, and direct disturbance of species by recreational activities (Arlettaz et al, 2007; Chamberlain et al, 2016). The latter is particularly harmful to rock ptarmigan, a highly sensitive species, which is still a game species in different Alpine regions, despite ongoing population decline (Furrer et al, 2016) and low breeding success (Canonne et al, 2020). Finally, suitable habitats in terms of vegetation type and structure should be maintained by means of dedicated management, such as carefully planned grazing to limit the height of grassland sward at suitable values for foraging alpine birds (Brambilla et al, 2018), or for the prevention of shrub and tree encroachment (Malfasi & Cannone, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying climate refugia for high‐elevation Alpine birds under current climate warming predictions

Brambilla

Rubolini

Appukuttan

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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Identifying climate refugia is key to effective biodiversity conservation under a changing climate, especially for mountain-specialist species adapted to cold conditions and highly threatened by climate warming. We combined species distribution models (SDMs) with climate forecasts to identify climate refugia for high-elevation bird species (Lagopus muta, Anthus spinoletta, Prunella collaris, Montifringilla nivalis) in the European Alps, where the ecological effects of climate changes are particularly evident and predicted to intensify.We considered future (2041-2070) conditions (SSP585 scenario, four climate models) and identified three types of refugia: (1) in-situ refugia potentially suitable under both current and future climate conditions, ex-situ refugia suitable (2) only in the future according to all future conditions, or (3) under at least three out of four future conditions. SDMs were based on a very large, high-resolution occurrence dataset (2901-12,601 independent records for each species) collected by citizen scientists. SDMs were fitted using different algorithms, balancing statistical accuracy, ecological realism and predictive/extrapolation ability. We selected the most reliable ones based on consistency between training and testing data and extrapolation over distant areas. Future predictions revealed that all species (with the partial exception of A. spinoletta) will undergo a range contraction towards higher elevations, losing 17%-59% of their current range (larger losses in L. muta). We identified ~15,000 km 2 of the Alpine region as in-situ refugia for at least three species, of which 44% are currently designated as protected areas (PAs; 18%-66% among countries). Our findings highlight the usefulness of spatially accurate data collected by citizen scientists, and the importance of model testing by extrapolating over independent areas. Climate refugia, which are only partly included within the current PAs system, should be priority sites for the conservation of Alpine high-elevation species and habitats, where habitat degradation/alteration by human activities should be prevented to ensure future suitability for alpine species.

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“…Our model showed a rather strong effect of capture and wearing of a transmitter on survival during the first month after release. Such effects have been reported for other Galliformes species, mainly in the fortnight following capture: sage‐grouse (Gibson et al, 2013), black grouse (Baines & Richardson, 2007), and rock ptarmigan (Canonne et al, 2020). Survival after the first month of capture remained lower than expected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Monthly survival was estimated using multi‐state capture–mark–recapture (CMR) models (Lebreton & Pradel, 2002), following the approach described in Canonne et al (2020) to explicitly model extra mortality associated with capture during the first month after release (Blomberg et al, 2018). We built monthly individual encounter histories from the date of capture to the date of death or radio failure, applied right censoring on individuals whose transmitters stopped working, and fixed detection probability to 1 as we used telemetry data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasted impacts of weather conditions in species sensitive to both survival and fecundity: A montane bird case study

Canonne

Bernard‐Laurent

Souchay

et al. 2023

Ecology

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Life on the edge: common slow pace of life but contrasted trajectories of alpine rock ptarmigan populations at their southern margin

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 5 publications

References 76 publications

Variation in Demography and Life-History Strategies Across the Range of a Declining Mountain Bird Species

Variation in Demography and Life-History Strategies Across the Range of a Declining Mountain Bird Species

Identifying climate refugia for high‐elevation Alpine birds under current climate warming predictions

Contrasted impacts of weather conditions in species sensitive to both survival and fecundity: A montane bird case study

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