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Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, July 2014
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (91st percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (88th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 news outlet
blogs
1 blog
twitter
4 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

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37 Dimensions

Readers on

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170 Mendeley
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Title
Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic
Published in
PLOS ONE, July 2014
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0100588
Pubmed ID
Authors

David D. Gustine, Todd J. Brinkman, Michael A. Lindgren, Jennifer I. Schmidt, T. Scott Rupp, Layne G. Adams

Abstract

Climatic warming has direct implications for fire-dominated disturbance patterns in northern ecosystems. A transforming wildfire regime is altering plant composition and successional patterns, thus affecting the distribution and potentially the abundance of large herbivores. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are an important subsistence resource for communities throughout the north and a species that depends on terrestrial lichen in late-successional forests and tundra systems. Projected increases in area burned and reductions in stand ages may reduce lichen availability within caribou winter ranges. Sufficient reductions in lichen abundance could alter the capacity of these areas to support caribou populations. To assess the potential role of a changing fire regime on winter habitat for caribou, we used a simulation modeling platform, two global circulation models (GCMs), and a moderate emissions scenario to project annual fire characteristics and the resulting abundance of lichen-producing vegetation types (i.e., spruce forests and tundra >60 years old) across a modeling domain that encompassed the winter ranges of the Central Arctic and Porcupine caribou herds in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic. Fires were less numerous and smaller in tundra compared to spruce habitats throughout the 90-year projection for both GCMs. Given the more likely climate trajectory, we projected that the Porcupine caribou herd, which winters primarily in the boreal forest, could be expected to experience a greater reduction in lichen-producing winter habitats (-21%) than the Central Arctic herd that wintered primarily in the arctic tundra (-11%). Our results suggest that caribou herds wintering in boreal forest will undergo fire-driven reductions in lichen-producing habitats that will, at a minimum, alter their distribution. Range shifts of caribou resulting from fire-driven changes to winter habitat may diminish access to caribou for rural communities that reside in fire-prone areas.

X Demographics

X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 170 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
South Africa 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 167 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 33 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 27 16%
Student > Master 23 14%
Student > Bachelor 20 12%
Other 12 7%
Other 13 8%
Unknown 42 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Environmental Science 51 30%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 26 15%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 13 8%
Social Sciences 8 5%
Business, Management and Accounting 4 2%
Other 15 9%
Unknown 53 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 18. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 May 2016.
All research outputs
#1,797,048
of 23,567,572 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#22,783
of 201,725 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#18,577
of 229,183 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#504
of 4,466 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,567,572 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 201,725 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.4. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 229,183 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4,466 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its contemporaries.