title: Asynchronous vegetation phenology enhances winter body condition of a large mobile herbivore.
abstract: Understanding how spatial and temporal heterogeneity influence ecological processes forms a central challenge in ecology. Individual responses to heterogeneity shape population dynamics, therefore understanding these responses is central to sustainable population management. Emerging evidence has shown that herbivores track heterogeneity in nutritional quality of vegetation by responding to phenological differences in plants. We quantified the benefits mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) accrue from accessing habitats with asynchronous plant phenology in northwest Colorado over 3 years. Our analysis examined both the direct physiological and indirect environmental effects of weather and vegetation phenology on mule deer winter body condition. We identified several important effects of annual weather patterns and topographical variables on vegetation phenology in the home ranges of mule deer. Crucially, temporal patterns of vegetation phenology were linked with differences in body condition, with deer tending to show poorer body condition in areas with less asynchronous vegetation green-up and later vegetation onset. The direct physiological effect of previous winter precipitation on mule deer body condition was much less important than the indirect effect mediated by vegetation phenology. Additionally, the influence of vegetation phenology on body fat was much stronger than that of overall vegetation productivity. In summary, changing annual weather patterns, particularly in relation to seasonal precipitation, have the potential to alter body condition of this important ungulate species during the critical winter period. This finding highlights the importance of maintaining large contiguous areas of spatially and temporally variable resources to allow animals to compensate behaviourally for changing climate-driven resource patterns.
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, EH26 0QB, UK. katrle@ceh.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Kate R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Searle
authors.affiliation: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 317 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA.
authors.forename: Mindy B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Rice
authors.affiliation: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 317 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA.
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 317 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA.
authors.forename: Chad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80524, CO, USA.
authors.forename: N T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Hobbs
mesh_terms: D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change; D003120:Colorado; D003670:Deer / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D060434:Herbivory; D063245:Plant Development; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012621:Seasons; D013045:Species Specificity; D014887:Weather
keywords: Climate change; Mule deer; Spatial heterogeneity; Temporal heterogeneity; Western Colorado