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Wildlife response to infrastructure: the problem with confounding factors

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Abstract

Understanding the effects of human infrastructure on wildlife is important for conservation and management and therefore widely studied. Challenges of many such studies are that they are often conducted after infrastructure establishment, when the exact consequence of the structure may be difficult to disentangle from other determinants of animal spatial use. To highlight these challenges, we use a case study of semi-domestic reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) spatial use within 5–6 km from an existing and a planned power line, using faecal pellet group counts in two areas in northern Norway. We found no relationship between pellet group density and distance to the existing power line, while the density of pellet groups decreased with increasing distance from the planned power line. Vegetation type was the main predictor of reindeer spatial use in the power line area, while elevation and vegetation cover accounted for the occurrence of reindeer in the area without power lines. Our results show that reindeer spatial use is a function of many aspects of the landscape, but not all of these are possible to control for. When this power line is built, what will an after-study of reindeer space use reveal? We underscore the importance of recording wildlife spatial use prior to, and after, infrastructure establishment for sound conclusions about animal response or lack thereof.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Agnes Kammerhofer for fieldwork and data preparation. We also thank Kjell Arne Seppola for useful information about the study areas, and Nils Johan Utsi and Isak Mathis Utsi for field transportation and valuable information about the study areas. Finally, we thank the reviewers for their excellent comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432, Ås, Norway

    Jonathan E. Colman, Tine Bergmo, Diress Tsegaye, Sindre Eftestøl, Marte S. Lilleeng & Stein R. Moe

  2. Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066, Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway

    Jonathan E. Colman, Diress Tsegaye, Kjetil Flydal & Sindre Eftestøl

  3. Faculty of Science, University College of Sogn and Fjordane, P.O. Box 133, 5861, Sogndal, Norway

    Marte S. Lilleeng

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  1. Jonathan E. Colman
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  2. Tine Bergmo
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  3. Diress Tsegaye
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  4. Kjetil Flydal
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  7. Stein R. Moe
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Correspondence to Diress Tsegaye.

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The research reported here has been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and complies with all relevant legislation. All authors agree with the contents of the manuscript and its submission to the journal.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutions or practice at which the study was conducted. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed.

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Colman, J.E., Bergmo, T., Tsegaye, D. et al. Wildlife response to infrastructure: the problem with confounding factors. Polar Biol 40, 477–482 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1960-8

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