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How do forage availability and climate control sheep reproductive performance?

Author

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  • Texeira, Marcos
  • Paruelo, José M.
  • Jobbagy, Esteban

Abstract

Environmental variability affects life history and fitness of both animal and plant species. For herbivores in particular, climate can have strong direct and indirect effects on demography, which tend to exacerbate in arid and semiarid environments with highly seasonal weather. We studied the joint effect of forage conditions, plant phenology, and climate on the reproductive performance of a “model” population: domestic sheep in the Patagonian steppe of Argentina. In this region sheep behave as semi-natural populations and relatively good population records are available. Using linear models and artificial neural networks trained by second order back-propagation methods, we demonstrated that reproductive performance, characterized by the marking rate (number of lambs per ewe), was associated to the timing of growing season start and to the primary production (as estimated from remotely sensed data) at mating. An ANN model including these variables explained 73% of the variability of normalized marking rate, and predicted observed marking rates with an accuracy of 63%. Our results highlight the importance of forage availability as opposed to weather regulating the reproductive performance of sheep at Patagonia, suggesting that bottom-up controls are of dominant importance for these populations. Using artificial neural networks, satellite imagery, and historical productive and climatic records, we disentangled the controls of sheep reproductive performance in a region characterized by weak but consistent relationships between environment and sheep dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Texeira, Marcos & Paruelo, José M. & Jobbagy, Esteban, 2008. "How do forage availability and climate control sheep reproductive performance?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 217(1), pages 197-206.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:217:y:2008:i:1:p:197-206
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.06.027
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. E. A. Catchpole & B. J. T. Morgan & T. N. Coulson & S. N. Freeman & S. D. Albon, 2000. "Factors influencing Soay sheep survival," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 49(4), pages 453-472.
    2. Loeske E. B. Kruuk & Tim H. Clutton-Brock & Steve D. Albon & Josephine M. Pemberton & Fiona E. Guinness, 1999. "Population density affects sex ratio variation in red deer," Nature, Nature, vol. 399(6735), pages 459-461, June.
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