title: European springtime temperature synchronises ibex horn growth across the eastern Swiss Alps.
abstract: Direct effects of climate change on animal physiology, and indirect impacts from disruption of seasonal synchrony and breakdown of trophic interactions are particularly severe in Arctic and Alpine ecosystems. Unravelling biotic from abiotic drivers, however, remains challenging because high-resolution animal population data are often limited in space and time. Here, we show that variation in annual horn growth (an indirect proxy for individual performance) of 8043 male Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) over the past four decades is well synchronised among eight disjunct colonies in the eastern Swiss Alps. Elevated March to May temperatures, causing premature melting of Alpine snowcover, earlier plant phenology and subsequent improvement of ibex food resources, fuelled annual horn growth. These results reveal dependency of local trophic interactions on large-scale climate dynamics, and provide evidence that declining herbivore performance is not a universal response to global warming even for high-altitude populations that are also harvested.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, CH-8903, Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, CH-3012, Switzerland; Global Change Research Centre AS CR, v.v.i., Bělidla 986/4a, Brno, CZ-60300, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Büntgen
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liebhold
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jenny
authors.forename: Atle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mysterud
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Egli
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nievergelt
authors.forename: Nils C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Stenseth
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bollmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057231:Climate Change; D006041:Goats / Q000254:growth & development*; D006733:Horns / Q000254:growth & development*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D012621:Seasons; D013557:Switzerland; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Alpine ungulates; European Alps; body size; climate change; ecological response; horn growth; phenotypic plasticity; plant phenology; spatial synchrony; trophic interaction