Life history consequences of climate change in hibernating mammals: A review
Data files
Jul 25, 2022 version files 55.95 KB
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README_file.rtf
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TableS1_July2022.xlsx
Abstract
Methods
We identified studies that addressed mammalian hibernator responses to anthropogenic climate change by conducting a standardized literature search in the ISI Web of Knowledge. Our final search took place on August 5th 2020 and identified studies published between 1950 and 2020. Searching for relevant studies with combinations of the following keywords - climat* AND hibern*, weather AND hibern* - generated a list of 717 citations (see PRISMA flow diagram presented in fig. 1).
We qualitatively disregarded studies that addressed topics that were not in line with our review: those that reported on species that did not truly hibernate (i.e. animals that exhibit torpor bouts < 24 hours, Geiser and Ruf 1995), or species that were not mammals. We further excluded studies where no statistics were reported, for which we could not find an English version, or that did not present sufficient evidence to detect a relationship between life history traits and climate or weather. We accepted experimental work if conducted in natura, but excluded studies that focused on habitat selection processes, activity budgets, and physiological correlates of hibernation, as opposed to the traits of interest to our study: phenology, body mass/condition and growth, reproduction, and survival.
Once a working subset of studies was identified (N=39), we separated results based on the key life history traits of interest (phenology, body mass/condition and growth, reproduction, and survival) and collected the following information for each entry in our dataframe: the species common name, Latin name, Order, study type (qualitative, quantitative, or review), ecosystem (desert, forest, grassland, mountain/alpine, rainforest, savannah, tundra, or other), field site location, latitude, longitude, length of study, beginning year, end year, life history trait(s), season in which trait was measured (summer/active, winter/hibernation), age group measured (pup, yearling, adult), social/reproductive status (e.g. reproductive vs. non-reproductive, subordinate vs. dominant), general climatic driver(s) (i.e. drought index, global index, rain, snow, temperature), specific climatic driver(s) (e.g. July mean maximum temperature), direction of effect(s) (i.e. negative, positive, no effect), statistical method, statistics reported, sample size, and citation information (table S1). Because studies reported a variety of weather and climate variables, we conceptually standardized the results according to four expected future climatic conditions: warmer conditions, drier conditions, a longer growing season, and a shorter winter from earlier snowmelt. For instance, a positive effect of rainfall and negative effect of drought are conceptually the same result, so those would both be categorized here as negative effect of drier conditions. Each row summarized a unique result linking a specific life history trait and climatic driver(s); hence, studies with multiple results were represented multiple times in our dataframe and in our results.
Usage notes
Please see ReadMe file