Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals

Abstract Fossorial locomotion is often considered as the most energetically costly of all terrestrial locomotion. Small arctic rodents, such as lemmings, dig tunnels not only in the soil but also through the snowpack, which is present for over 8 months of the year. Lemmings typically dig in the soft...

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Autores principales:	Mathilde Poirier, Dominique Fauteux, Gilles Gauthier, Florent Domine, Jean‐François Lamarre
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Wiley 2021
Materias:	Arctic burrowing behavior digging fossorial hardness lemming Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d99fa337ac2145518793d59efc180ccf
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d99fa337ac2145518793d59efc180ccf2021-11-29T07:06:42ZSnow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals2150-892510.1002/ecs2.3835https://doaj.org/article/d99fa337ac2145518793d59efc180ccf2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3835https://doaj.org/toc/2150-8925Abstract Fossorial locomotion is often considered as the most energetically costly of all terrestrial locomotion. Small arctic rodents, such as lemmings, dig tunnels not only in the soil but also through the snowpack, which is present for over 8 months of the year. Lemmings typically dig in the softest snow layer called the depth hoar but with climate change, melt‐freeze and rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events are expected to increase in the Arctic, leading to a higher frequency of hardened snowpacks. We assessed the impacts of snow hardness on the locomotion of two lemming species showing different morphological adaptations for digging. We hypothesized that an increase in snow hardness would (1) decrease lemming performance and (2) increase their effort while digging, but those responses would differ between lemming species. We exposed four brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) and three collared lemmings (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) to snow of different hardness (soft, hard, and ROS) during 30‐min trials (n = 63 trials) in a cold room and filmed their behavior. We found that the digging speed and tunnel length of both species decreased with snow hardness and density, underlining the critical role of snow properties in affecting lemming digging performance. During the ROS trials, time spent digging by lemmings increased considerably and they also started using their incisors to help break the hard snow, validating our second hypothesis. Overall, digging performance was higher in collared lemmings, the species showing more morphological adaptations to digging, than in brown lemmings. We conclude that the digging performance of lemming is highly dependent on snowpack hardness and that the anticipated increase in ROS events may pose a critical energetic challenge for arctic rodent populations.Mathilde PoirierDominique FauteuxGilles GauthierFlorent DomineJean‐François LamarreWileyarticleArcticburrowing behaviordiggingfossorialhardnesslemmingEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcosphere, Vol 12, Iss 11, Pp n/a-n/a (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Arctic burrowing behavior digging fossorial hardness lemming Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Arctic burrowing behavior digging fossorial hardness lemming Ecology QH540-549.5 Mathilde Poirier Dominique Fauteux Gilles Gauthier Florent Domine Jean‐François Lamarre Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
description	Abstract Fossorial locomotion is often considered as the most energetically costly of all terrestrial locomotion. Small arctic rodents, such as lemmings, dig tunnels not only in the soil but also through the snowpack, which is present for over 8 months of the year. Lemmings typically dig in the softest snow layer called the depth hoar but with climate change, melt‐freeze and rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events are expected to increase in the Arctic, leading to a higher frequency of hardened snowpacks. We assessed the impacts of snow hardness on the locomotion of two lemming species showing different morphological adaptations for digging. We hypothesized that an increase in snow hardness would (1) decrease lemming performance and (2) increase their effort while digging, but those responses would differ between lemming species. We exposed four brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) and three collared lemmings (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) to snow of different hardness (soft, hard, and ROS) during 30‐min trials (n = 63 trials) in a cold room and filmed their behavior. We found that the digging speed and tunnel length of both species decreased with snow hardness and density, underlining the critical role of snow properties in affecting lemming digging performance. During the ROS trials, time spent digging by lemmings increased considerably and they also started using their incisors to help break the hard snow, validating our second hypothesis. Overall, digging performance was higher in collared lemmings, the species showing more morphological adaptations to digging, than in brown lemmings. We conclude that the digging performance of lemming is highly dependent on snowpack hardness and that the anticipated increase in ROS events may pose a critical energetic challenge for arctic rodent populations.
format	article
author	Mathilde Poirier Dominique Fauteux Gilles Gauthier Florent Domine Jean‐François Lamarre
author_facet	Mathilde Poirier Dominique Fauteux Gilles Gauthier Florent Domine Jean‐François Lamarre
author_sort	Mathilde Poirier
title	Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
title_short	Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
title_full	Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
title_fullStr	Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
title_full_unstemmed	Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
title_sort	snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals
publisher	Wiley
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d99fa337ac2145518793d59efc180ccf
work_keys_str_mv	AT mathildepoirier snowhardnessimpactsintraniveanlocomotionofarcticsmallmammals AT dominiquefauteux snowhardnessimpactsintraniveanlocomotionofarcticsmallmammals AT gillesgauthier snowhardnessimpactsintraniveanlocomotionofarcticsmallmammals AT florentdomine snowhardnessimpactsintraniveanlocomotionofarcticsmallmammals AT jeanfrancoislamarre snowhardnessimpactsintraniveanlocomotionofarcticsmallmammals
_version_	1718407555859873792

Snow hardness impacts intranivean locomotion of arctic small mammals

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