1. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis,
2. Department of Biology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
3. CNRS UMR 7625, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75230 Paris, France
4. IRD GEODES, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, 93142 Bondy cedex, France
5. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Gaustadalleen 21, N-0349 Oslo, Norway
6. Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Realfagbygget, Allegaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway
7. Present address: Norwegian Polar Institute, N- 9296 Tromsø, Norway.

Correspondence to: Nils Chr. Stenseth¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to N.C.S. (Email: n.c.stenseth@bio.uio.no).

Abstract

The population cycles of rodents at northern latitudes have puzzled people for centuries^{1, 2}, and their impact is manifest throughout the alpine ecosystem^{2, 3}. Climate change is known to be able to drive animal population dynamics between stable and cyclic phases^{4, 5}, and has been suggested to cause the recent changes in cyclic dynamics of rodents and their predators^{3, 6, 7, 8, 9}. But although predator–rodent interactions are commonly argued to be the cause of the Fennoscandian rodent cycles^{1, 10, 11, 12, 13}, the role of the environment in the modulation of such dynamics is often poorly understood in natural systems^{8, 9, 14}. Hence, quantitative links between climate-driven processes and rodent dynamics have so far been lacking. Here we show that winter weather and snow conditions, together with density dependence in the net population growth rate, account for the observed population dynamics of the rodent community dominated by lemmings (Lemmus lemmus) in an alpine Norwegian core habitat between 1970 and 1997, and predict the observed absence of rodent peak years after 1994. These local rodent dynamics are coherent with alpine bird dynamics both locally and over all of southern Norway, consistent with the influence of large-scale fluctuations in winter conditions. The relationship between commonly available meteorological data and snow conditions indicates that changes in temperature and humidity, and thus conditions in the subnivean space, seem to markedly affect the dynamics of alpine rodents and their linked groups. The pattern of less regular rodent peaks, and corresponding changes in the overall dynamics of the alpine ecosystem, thus seems likely to prevail over a growing area under projected climate change.

1. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis,
2. Department of Biology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
3. CNRS UMR 7625, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75230 Paris, France
4. IRD GEODES, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, 93142 Bondy cedex, France
5. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Gaustadalleen 21, N-0349 Oslo, Norway
6. Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Realfagbygget, Allegaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway
7. Present address: Norwegian Polar Institute, N- 9296 Tromsø, Norway.

Correspondence to: Nils Chr. Stenseth¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to N.C.S. (Email: n.c.stenseth@bio.uio.no).

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