Importance of climatological downscaling and plant phenology for red deer in heterogeneous landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how climate influences ecosystems represents a challenge in ecology and natural resource management. Although we know that climate affects plant phenology and herbivore performances at any single site, no study has directly coupled the topography-climate interaction (i.e. the climatological downscaling process) with large-scale vegetation dynamics and animal performances. Here we show how climatic variability (measured by the North Atlantic oscillation 'NAO') interacts with local topography in determining the vegetative greenness (as measured by the normalized difference vegetation index 'NDVI') and the body masses and seasonal movements of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Norway. Warm springs induced an earlier onset of vegetation, resulting in earlier migration and higher body

SUBMITTER: Pettorelli N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1559971 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature