Open AccessHabitat selection as a hierarchy: the spatial scales of winter foraging by muskoxen
Author(s) -
Schaefer James A.,
Messier François
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
ecography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.973
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1600-0587
pISSN - 0906-7590
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.1995.tb00136.x
Subject(s) - graminoid , ecology , habitat , foraging , forage , abundance (ecology) , selection (genetic algorithm) , range (aeronautics) , biology , geography , ecological succession , plant community , materials science , artificial intelligence , computer science , composite material
We studied the winter resource selection of muskoxen Ovibos moschatus in the High Arctic using a nested hierarchy of spatial scales 1) population range, 2) travel routes, 3) feeding sites (l e clusters of feeding craters), 4) feeding craters, and 5) diet (I e plant species) We found that, generally, patterns of selection remained consistent across all levels At successively smaller scales, muskoxen selected for higher graminoid abundance and particularly for thinner, softer snow cover, although we did not reject the hypothesis of random travel route selection Muskoxen uncovered forages from beneath the snow cover, by cratering, near the flonstic and nival extremes of availability Selection was consistently biased toward use of water sedge, Carex aquatilis As scale changed, however, muskoxen showed reversals of preference for some other forage species Diet was dominated by C aquatilis and cotton sedge, Eriophorum angustifolium , species characteristic of lowland meadows During spring melt, muskoxen moved to snow‐free uplands to feed Dietary quality, as revealed by fecal nitrogen, increased at this time The consistency of the results across scales implied that these local levels of habitat selection occurred within one scaling domain