Climate may play role in lynx's hunting ability
July 6, 2004 - Snow quality may affect the Canadian lynx’s ability to kill its prey, according to new research suggesting climate may be affecting one of the most fascinating ecological systems to intrigue biologists. The University of Alberta’s Dr. Stan Boutin is part of a research team studying the relationship between the lynx and the snowshoe hare--an interaction that has grave implications on the dynamics of the boreal forest.
Boutin teamed up with other researchers from Canada, the United States and Norway to study the lynx-hare cycle, and how it relates to the overall boreal forest community. Stenseth has previously argued that the 10-year cycle, defined as a rise and fall of the hare population followed by a similar pattern of the lynx, differed according to regions of the country, and that those differences were tied to large-scale climatic patterns.
“The genetics of the lynx are quite different among these Canadian regions and we questioned whether there was some sort of barrier that might stop gene flow," Boutin said. “We knew there was nothing physical between eastern and central regions, so we started to speculate that there may be something climate-related that would influence the lynx’s ability to prey on snow hares and their propensity to move between regions.”
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the team demonstrated that different snow conditions may, in fact, affect the dynamics of the Canadian lynx.
In particular, surface hardness, as determined by the frequency of warm winter spells, controls how deep the lynx sinks in the snow. For example, when there are few warm spells, the researchers write, the snow remains fluffy and the lynx sinks deep, whereas its main prey, the snowshoe hare does not sink in the snow and will easily escape under such conditions. But with increasing warm spells, the hares are not able to escape as easily.
For more than 10 years, Boutin has collected rare data on the lynx’s ability to kill under different snow conditions. His team was able to track the type of snow and whether the animal was successful in the kill or not. “This lynx-hare cycle is an amazing phenomenon and it has proven to be a very robust relationship,” Boutin said. “If we start to get climate warming and a crusting of the snow without long, deep cold spells, it could change the interaction and disrupt this robust system we’re used to seeing.”
This cycle forms one of the fundamental pulses in the boreal forest ecosystem. The hare is the prime herbivore in the system and its disappearance would have major implications for other species, and the structure of the plant community would be altered substantially, Boutin said.
Related links – internal
Dr. Stan Boutin’s U of A website: http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/stan_boutin/
The U of A Department of Biological Sciences website: http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/
Related link –external
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science website: http://www.pnas.org/
