The diel niche of brown bears: constraints on adaptive capacity in human-modified landscapes
Wiley-Blackwell
2025
Donatelli_etal_2025_Ecography_The_diel_niche.pdf - Publisher's version - 2.88 MB
How to cite: Donatelli, A., Ćirović, D., Haroldson, M.A., Huber, Đ., Kindberg, J., Kojola, I., Kusak, J., Mastrantonio, G., Ordiz, A., Reljić, S., Santini, L., van Manen, F.T. and Ciucci, P. (2025), The diel niche of brown bears: constraints on adaptive capacity in human-modified landscapes. Ecography e07979. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.07979
Pysyvä osoite
Tiivistelmä
Diel activity rhythms, representing the behavioral pattern of the sleep–wake cycle, may be adjusted by wildlife in response to changes in environmental conditions. An increase in nocturnality is typically recognized as an adaptive strategy to segregate from humans and mitigate heat stress. Numerous studies have investigated spatial patterns and habitat use of large carnivores in human-modified landscapes, but little research has examined their activity rhythms. We compiled Global Positioning System data (2004–2022) for 139 brown bears Ursus arctos from six populations across Europe, representing a human-modified landscape, and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, U.S.A., representing a landscape with limited human impact, which we used to calculate hourly movement rates as an activity proxy. Using a Bayesian approach to model the temporal autocorrelation of activity data, we tested if the extent of nocturnality in brown bears is modulated by intensity of human encroachment, accounting for primary productivity and maximum ambient temperature. All bear populations exhibited a predominantly bimodal, crepuscular pattern of activity, although Yellowstone bears were proportionally more crepuscular and diurnal. Whereas the effect of primary productivity was variable, all European populations became more nocturnal in response to higher human encroachment and reduced diurnal and crepuscular activity at higher summer temperatures, decreasing overall diel activity levels. Yellowstone bears displayed the greatest shift towards nocturnality among all populations in response to increasing human encroachment, and increased nocturnal activity to compensate for lower diurnal and crepuscular activity at higher summer temperatures. Our research indicates that European bears in human-modified landscapes may be reaching a limit in the behavioral plasticity they can manifest in their activity patterns, being already constrained into increased nocturnality. Our findings enhance the understanding of brown bear adaptive capacity to accommodate future changes, such as urbanization and increasing temperatures, to the ecosystems they inhabit.
ISBN
OKM-julkaisutyyppi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Julkaisusarja
Ecography
Volyymi
Numero
Sivut
Sivut
15 p.
ISSN
0906-7590
1600-0587
1600-0587