LONG-TERM DEMOGRAPHY OF A WHITE TAILED PTARMIGAN (LAGOPUS LEUCURA) POPULATION IN COLORADO

TL;DRAbstract

Animals endemic to alpine habitats have been receiving increasing attention in recent years due to concerns over sensitivities of high elevation systems to climate warming. Long-term datasets are needed to assess trends in populations of alpine endemic species, but such datasets are rare, primarily due to logistical challenges that constrain data collection in these environments. Long-term datasets also provide critical information on impacts of altered climate because they span multiple decades under which climate varies. To accurately forecast or predict the impacts of warming on alpine animals, it is necessary to first understand how they have responded to climate variation in the past. Here, I present a demographic analysis on 43 years (1968-2010) of long-term data for the white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura) at an alpine study site in central Colorado. Spring warming was found to advance breeding phenology an average of 10 days over the course of study, and temperature and pre

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