Simulation of alpine chamois Rupicapra r. rupicapra habitat use

Fankhauser, Regine; Enggist, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2003.10.020

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…But goats seem to have a much higher proportion of browsing on woody species (up to 50%) than ungulates such as red deer (Stuber and Bü rgi 2001;Suter and others 2004). Additionally, reconstructed historic goat densities are much higher than modern average ungulate density in temperate forests (for example, Reimoser and Gossow 1996;Cô té and others 2004;Fankhauser and Enggist 2004). Therefore, the impact of woodland pasture on tree species composition might have been even more pronounced compared to browsing by ungulates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing Anthropogenic Disturbance Regimes in Forest Ecosystems: A Case Study from the Swiss Rhone Valley

2007

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Anthropogenic disturbances of forest ecosystems are increasingly recognized as fundamental ecological processes with important long-term implications for biogeochemical cycles and vegetation patterns. This article aims at reconstructing the extent and intensity of the two most common types of traditional forest uses-forest litter collecting and wood pasture-in the Swiss Rhone valley (Valais) by (i) identifying the spatiotemporal patterns, and (ii) modeling the biomass removal through these practices. Detailed information on agricultural practices and socioeconomic context were essential to develop reliable estimates of anthropogenic disturbance regimes. In the Valais, predominately goats and sheep grazed in the forests. The intensity of grazing was a function of the number of grazing animals and the available grazing area. Forest litter was used as bedding for farm animals during the winter. Key factors determining the intensity of litter collecting were the number of animal units, the amount of available substitute products (straw), and the area where litter raking could be practiced. The results show that wood pasture and forest litter collecting were practiced on a significant proportion of the forested landscape in the Valais up to the second half of the 20th century. Until the implementation of forest management plans in the 1930s, almost half of the forests in the study area were affected by wood pasture and/or forest litter collecting. The regulations in the management plans led to an essential reduction of the area available for these traditional practices but likewise to an increased pressure on the remaining areas. The results suggest that the notion of a slow but steady disappearance of traditional non-timber forest uses and the associated effects on forest ecosystems is oversimplified. Quantitative reconstructions of biomass output resulting from these practices confirm the importance of traditional non-timber forest uses for ecosystem development in this region. Furthermore, it is very likely that similar effects have been widespread throughout regions with similar natural and socioeconomic context, for example, throughout a significant proportion of the European Alps. This study underlines the importance of environmental history for ecological sciences as well as for forest management and conservation planning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing Anthropogenic Disturbance Regimes in Forest Ecosystems: A Case Study from the Swiss Rhone Valley

2007

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“…An individual-based spatially-explicit model simulating chamois movements (Fankhauser & Enggist 2004) suggested an influence of local topography and habitat structure on the altitudinal movements in our study area (P. Ingold et al, unpubl. data).…”

Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Effects of air traffic, snow cover and weather on altitudinal short-term and medium-term movements of female Alpine chamois Rupicapra rupicapra in winter

Boldt

Ingold

2005

Wildlife Biology

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We studied the altitudinal movements of eight radio-collared female Alpine chamois Rupicapra rupicapra in the Swiss Alps to investigate how air traffic and environmental factors affect daily movements and medium-term altitudinal displacements in winter. Average altitude was often similar during periods of several days depending mainly on snow cover. Daily altitudinal movements occurred at all altitude levels and seemed to be affected more by local topography and habitat structure than by current environmental conditions. In individuals that were above the timberline in the morning, and thus were potentially exposed to air traffic, the first aircraft of a day could induce a downward movement, and a high intensity of air traffic (i.e. many aircraft during most of the day) affected the altitudinal difference that was covered during the whole day. After a downward movement the chamois returned to higher altitudes within a day and the following night, confirming their preference for the open pastures above the timberline. Two groups of chamois that were exposed to different intensities of air traffic, did not differ in their altitudinal movements, indicating a weak effect of aircraft. The daily energy costs of altitudinal locomotion were not considerably increased. We estimate that, on an average winter day, the energy costs of locomotion were not increased by more than 0.1% of the field metabolic rate (FMR) due to aircraft. However, a combination of deep snow and very intensive air traffic may result in a much higher increase in the energy expenditures on certain days. Further reasons for this ambiguous influence of aircraft are discussed.

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“…As chamois Rupicapra rupicapra are the most frequent large herbivore above the treeline in the eastern Alps, with particularly high population densities in the northeastern Calcareous Alps (Krause 1997), we considered this species to be the most important free ranging animal (long‐distance) dispersal vector in the region. We hence used telemetric data on chamois movement, taken from Fankhauser and Enggist (2004), to parameterise the random walk simulations. Essentially, we created a time series of activity states (following the categorization of states and the between‐state transition probabilities in Fankhauser and Enggist (2004)), and then simulated random walks based on a constant step duration of 3 min (or shorter, if the activity state was simulated to change earlier).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patch configuration affects alpine plant distribution

Dullinger¹,

Mang²,

Dirnböck³

et al. 2011

Ecography

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The relative importance of niche requirements and dispersal limitation in controlling the landscape‐scale distribution of plants is still contentious. Local occurrence and abundance of alpine plants are commonly thought to be driven by abiotic site conditions due to pronounced environmental gradients over short distances. However, explicit tests of the additional role of dispersal‐related processes for alpine plant distribution patterns are lacking. Here, we combine niche‐based species distribution models with variables describing patch size and connectivity to evaluate if, besides abiotic limitations, spatial habitat configuration affects the occurrence and abundance of six plant species inhabiting patchy snowbed mosaics of the northeastern Calcareous Alps in Austria. Moreover, we assess if eventual effects of spatial patch configuration are more clearly detectable when calculating connectivity based on parameterized mechanistic dispersal kernels for both wind and animal vectors instead of using nearest neighbour metrics. We show that patch size and connectivity are significantly correlated to the occurrence of all and to the abundance of four out of six study species, although the relative importance of these variables, as compared to niche constraints, varies among species. In addition, connectivity measures derived from parameterized dispersal kernels were more closely related to occupancy, and in particular to abundance patterns than a simple nearest neighbour metric. The fitted kernels also suggest that dispersal by alpine chamois plays an important role for inter‐patch seed exchange. We conclude that, despite evident abiotic limitations, recurrent local extinctions and delayed re‐colonizations indeed play a role for the distribution of our study species, and that alpine plants may hence be less in equilibrium with their abiotic environment than commonly thought. Moreover, the relatively high long‐distance dispersal probabilities of animal kernels indicate that the ability of alpine plants to adapt their ranges to a rapidly warming climate may, among other factors, depend on the availability of dispersal services by large mammals.

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Simulation of alpine chamois Rupicapra r. rupicapra habitat use

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Reconstructing Anthropogenic Disturbance Regimes in Forest Ecosystems: A Case Study from the Swiss Rhone Valley

Reconstructing Anthropogenic Disturbance Regimes in Forest Ecosystems: A Case Study from the Swiss Rhone Valley

Effects of air traffic, snow cover and weather on altitudinal short-term and medium-term movements of female Alpine chamois Rupicapra rupicapra in winter

Patch configuration affects alpine plant distribution

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