Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden

Factors predicting moose body condition in Sweden were investigated by means of dressed weight from shot animals and combining a range of potential explanatory variables from public national databases. There were significant differences between regions, sexes and age-classes with considerable var...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Gentsch, Regina
Formato: H2
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: SLU/Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies 2017
Materias:
_version_ 1855572178814107648
author Gentsch, Regina
author_browse Gentsch, Regina
author_facet Gentsch, Regina
author_sort Gentsch, Regina
collection Epsilon Archive for Student Projects
description Factors predicting moose body condition in Sweden were investigated by means of dressed weight from shot animals and combining a range of potential explanatory variables from public national databases. There were significant differences between regions, sexes and age-classes with considerable variation between years and moose populations. Population sex ratio (male:female) and ungulate species richness (number of sympatric ungulate species present) were highly relevant in the models for the northern region, while densities of other ungulates (red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, wild boar) and human disturbance were significantly correlated with moose body mass in southern Sweden. Calf weights seemed to be mainly associated with abiotic factors like latitude and altitude and also with land use proportions such as available area of transitional habitat (wood-shrub, including young forests and clear-felled areas). Adult moose weights, in turn, were significantly correlated with interspecific variables and population sex ratio. Variation between moose populations was high. As a general trend, relationships in northern Sweden were mostly explained by fewer variables with higher consistence between age-classes. My results indicate that predictability is decreased by climate change creating complexity in food availability, and that managers should try to improve moose sex ratio and continue developing multispecies management approaches in order to maintain a Swedish moose population of high quality.
format H2
id RepoSLU13054
institution Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
language Inglés
publishDate 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher SLU/Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
publisherStr SLU/Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
record_format eprints
spelling RepoSLU130542017-12-12T08:00:08Z Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden Vad påverkar älgkvalitet? : en studie av landskaps-, demografi-, och konkurrenseffekter längs en svensk latitudgradient Gentsch, Regina moose condition body mass multispecies ungulate database Factors predicting moose body condition in Sweden were investigated by means of dressed weight from shot animals and combining a range of potential explanatory variables from public national databases. There were significant differences between regions, sexes and age-classes with considerable variation between years and moose populations. Population sex ratio (male:female) and ungulate species richness (number of sympatric ungulate species present) were highly relevant in the models for the northern region, while densities of other ungulates (red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, wild boar) and human disturbance were significantly correlated with moose body mass in southern Sweden. Calf weights seemed to be mainly associated with abiotic factors like latitude and altitude and also with land use proportions such as available area of transitional habitat (wood-shrub, including young forests and clear-felled areas). Adult moose weights, in turn, were significantly correlated with interspecific variables and population sex ratio. Variation between moose populations was high. As a general trend, relationships in northern Sweden were mostly explained by fewer variables with higher consistence between age-classes. My results indicate that predictability is decreased by climate change creating complexity in food availability, and that managers should try to improve moose sex ratio and continue developing multispecies management approaches in order to maintain a Swedish moose population of high quality. SLU/Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies 2017 H2 eng https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/13054/
spellingShingle moose condition
body mass
multispecies
ungulate
database
Gentsch, Regina
Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden
title Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden
title_full Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden
title_fullStr Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden
title_short Socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in Sweden
title_sort socio-ecological preditors of moose body condition across a latitudinal gradient in sweden
topic moose condition
body mass
multispecies
ungulate
database