Demographic responses to changing environments
Demographic responses to changing environments
Individuals and populations are affected by environmental conditions such as habitat and climatic conditions. This can cause spatial and temporal variation in population properties. However, the influence of climate on populations may depend on the habitat, generating complex links between temporal and spatial variation in environmental conditions. We aim to understand how individual traits and population properties vary in time and space in relation to variation in factors such as habitat, food availability and quality, weather and climate, but also accounting for species and population properties such as life history and density.
Current research
Moose at Vega: movement ecology, harvesting, and environmental variation in relation to individual variation in fitness-related traits.
Sea-birds: Understanding the link between climate, spatio-temporal variation in food resources, and population demography.
The Sustain project: An ecosystem approach on harvesting in a changing climate.
Who are we?
Ivar Herfindal. Current research is mainly within the Sustain project, focussing on spatio-temporal patterns of environmental variation in relation to harvesting.
Erling Johan Solberg. Works at NINA, mainly on ungulate ecology and management with special focus on moose.
Hanno Sandvik. Hanno has recently started in a researcher position at NINA after many years at NTNU. Expertise on sea bird ecology, but has also worked on invasive species in close collaboration with the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre.
Brett Sandercock. Brett is employed at NINA where he works on a variety of species and systems, mainly with population monitoring, ecology, and management. He is particularly interested in birds.
Erlend Birkeland Nilsen. Erlend is a researcher at NINA and is particularly interested in demography of harvested species. He is also in charge of several large-scale monitoring programmes and the Living Norway initative for ecological data.
Svenja Kroeger. Svenja is a postdoc at NIBIO, working on impacts on roads on wildlife populations and communities. She also works on life history evolution and demographics in yellow-bellied marmots.
Lars Rød-Eriksen. Lars is a researcher at NINA. His research focusses on human impact on alpine ecosystems.
PhD and Master projects
Current
- Ellen C. Martin (PhD): Spatial synchrony in population dynamics under climate change
- Ragnhild Bjørkås (PhD): Spatiotemporal dynamics of interacting species
- Angeline Bruls (PhD): Biodiversity consequences of habitat loss
- Pooja Dahal (MSc): Effects of human activities on site fidelity of Moose
Previous
- Endre Grüner Ofstad (PhD): Habitat and space use in moose: individual variation and fitness consequences
- Stine Svalheim Markussen (PhD): Individual variation in vital rates in a harvested moose population
- Siri Hånes Langen (MSc): Fine-scale spatio-temporal variation in life history trait of moose in relation to environmental variation.
- Sam Perrin (MSc): Seasonal variation in habitat-performance relationship in female moose
- Anne I. Utsi (MSc): Temporal variation in habitat overlap of roe deer and lynx in a human-dominated landscape
- Anne M. G. Kwaak (MSc): Growing up and growing old - specific survival in two populations of chamois
Selected publications
Kroeger, S.B., Blumstein, D.T., Armitage, K.B., Reid, J.M. and Martin, J.G.A. 2020. Older mothers produce more successful daughters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117, 4809-4814.
Herfindal, I., Tveraa, T., Stien, A., Solberg, E.J. and Grøtan, V. 2020. When does weather synchronise life history traits? Spatiotemporal patterns in juvenile body mass of two ungulates. Journal of Animal Ecology 89, 1419-1432.
Rød‐Eriksen, L., Skrutvold, J., Herfindal, I., Jensen, H., and Eide, N.E. 2020. Highways associated with expansion of boreal scavengers into the alpine tundra of Fennoscandia. Journal of Applied Ecology 57, 1861-1870.
Herfindal, I., Anderwald, P., Filli, F., Campell Andri, S. and Rempfler, T. 2019. Climate, competition and weather conditions drive vertical displacement and habitat use of an alpine ungulate in a highly topographic landscape. Landscape Ecology 34, 2523-2539.
Markussen, S.S., Herfindal, I., Loison, A., Solberg, E.J., Haanes, H., Røed, K.H., Heim, M. and Sæther, B.-E. 2019. Determinants of age at first reproduction and lifetime breeding success revealed by full paternity assignment in a male ungulate. Oikos 128, 328-337.
Rolandsen, C.M., Solberg, E.J., Sæther, B.-E., van Moorter, B., Herfindal, I. and Bjørneraas, K. 2017. On fitness and partial migration in a large herbivore – migrant females have higher reproductive performance than resident females. Oikos 126, 547-555.
Ofstad, E.G., Herfindal, I., Solberg, E.J. and Sæther, B.-E. 2016. Home ranges, habitat and body mass: simple correlates of home range size in ungulates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283, 20161234.
Sandvik, H., Barrett, R.T., Erikstad, K.E., Myksvoll, M.S., Vikebø, F., Yoccoz, N.G., Anker-Nilssen, T., Lorentsen, S.-H., Reiertsen, T.K., Skarðhamar, J., Skern-Mauritzen, M. and Systad, G.H. 2016. Modelled drift patterns of fish larvae link coastal morphology to seabird colony distribution. Nature Communications 7, 11599.