This Winter in New England was the warmest(or 2nd warmest) on record with virtually no meaningful snow cover................Everything in these eastern woodlands has and will be impacted in some way...............Frogs and Amphibians have been up and about since the first week in February, whereas their normal Spring emergence is the end of March..........Any number of freezing temperatures events since then have likely killed off many of these creatures ..............Deer, Turkey and other "seed browsers" will likely have a boom Spring and Summer as food acquisition this Winter has been "easy pickings"...........Of course with that boom, comes more mosquitoes and lyme disease as deer tics explode simultaneously with deer and rodent numbers potentially(not an absolute) on the rise next year due to adults thriving this season..................Fish will be more plentiful as lakes and ponds did not freeze over, allowing more oxygen to be available to the fish---perhaps Black Bears will fatten up on the larger supply of fish...........Coyotes, Foxes, Bobcats, Lynx, Fishers and Martens could find food harder to acquire if small mammals and rodents need not wander far afield for food due to large stores nearby their nests.................Bird migration will likely be thrown off kilter as their insect prey will likely be somewhat out of sync with the birds earlier Spring arrival.................. "Soil freezing without snow cover (will have) adverse effects on spring trees live root biomass"........... "In the short-term, (this soil freezing) could stimulate above ground processes such as stem respiration and radial growth for A. rubrum(red maple) more than Q. rubra(red oak)"....................."The increasing abundance of A. rubrum relative to Q. rubra may have important implications for (carbon) storage in tree stem biomass(with more carbon dioxide released into the atomosphere)"................Over the long term, increasing red maple abundance at the expense of red oak will reduce acorn drop in the fall, with a cascading downward impact on every creature from Blue Jays to Black Bears to Deer, all very dependent on this key Fall "fattening-up" foodstuff

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiI3dzDrLLLAhVS42MKHYDTBxoQqQIIISgAMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.milforddailynews.com%2Fnews%2F20160306%2Fwarm-winter-expected-to-affect-animal-populations&usg=AFQjCNEzXn26siraPFEM8ERtDNXomzCXtQ

• Warm winter

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• affect animal 

• populations

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  By Corin Cook Daily News Staff

  Posted Mar. 6, 2016 at 5:00 AM 
  
  
  

  This winter, locals went without jackets,

  
  

  drove around with the windows down and

  
  

  shoveled much less snow than usual.

  As meteorological winter (Dec. 1 through

  
  

  Feb. 29) came to a close on March 1, the

  
  

  National Weather Service reported that in

  
  

  New England, this winter was the warmest

  
  

  on record in Providence, Rhode Island;

  
  

  Concord, New Hampshire; and Caribou,

  
  

  Maine; and the second warmest in Boston;

  
  

  Hartford, Connecticut; and Portland, Maine.

  With the meteorological phenomenon El Nino

  
  

  to blame, the warmer-than-usual winter

  
  

  months have also interfered with local

  
  

  animals’ biological clocks, which experts

  
  

  believe may cause changes in animal

  
  

  behavior and populations now and in

  
  

  the coming months.

  Marion Larson, chief of information and

  
  

  education with the Massachusetts Division

  
  

  of Fisheries and Wildlife, said the warm

  
  

  weather has the ability to yield “local

  
  

  population effects,” and changes in behavior.

  
  whitetail deer in very thin snow covered woods
  
  
  Something she is noticing is the “unusual 
  

  Larson recalls hearing spring peepers during a

  
  

  few warm and rainy days the first week of

  
  

  February.

  “I’ve never heard spring peepers in the first

  
  

  week of February,” she said about the frogs,

  
  

  which typically start emerging in this area at

  
  

  the end of March.

  Immediately after the warm days in early

  
  

  February, temperatures dropped below

  
  

  freezing, Larson said, and the peepers “may or

  
  

  may not have made it to cover for the impending

  
  

  cold.”

  She added, “It’s a whole lot easier if you’re a deer

  
  

  or a turkey” than a frog.

  Animals that feed on seeds and plants on the

  
  

  ground are likely having no problem finding

  
  

  food this year with the lack of snowfall, she said.

  Lack of snow also makes it easier for birds of prey

  
  

  to spot small mammals which would normally

  
  

  burrow around and hide in the snow, she said.

  The weather was also especially favorable for fish

  
  

  and other pond dwellers who were not trapped under

  
  

  inches of ice.

  When aquatic creatures are trapped under ice for an

  
  

  extended period, many suffer from hypoxia, an oxygen

  
  

  deficiency, Larson said.

  
  Coyote with his fawn kill
  
  
  Because bodies of water were frozen for many months
  

  This winter, she expects fish are faring much better.

  Wildlife control operator Barry Mandell said the warmer

  
  

  weather has affected the rodents and small mammals he

  
  

  traps.

  Beavers, skunks, squirrels, woodchucks, raccoons and

  
  

  chipmunks are active earlier this year, he said.

  There aren’t necessarily more of these animals, Mandell

  
  

  said, but “next year there is going to be,” because they

  
  

  are likely mating more than they would during a year

  
  

  with longer cold patterns.

  
  

  These creatures could run into trouble if there was

  
  

  a limited food supply, Mandell said, but because last

  
  

  fall’s acorn crop was abundant, the animals should

  
  

  not face any food shortages.

  This food security may be challenging to these animals’

  
  

  predators, such as coyotes, because “there’s so much

  
  

  food that their prey doesn’t travel,” said Mandell.

  Ben Hix, an associate certified entomologist from

  
  

  Dewey

  
  

  Pest and Wildlife in Hopedale, said for many creatures,

  
  

  when weather patterns are unusual “the internal clock

  
  

  that they have sort of misfires.”

  For instance, “migratory birds can start to come

  
  

  home and lay eggs earlier,” he said.

  Hix said he expects to see a “burst in the insect

  
  

  population” because they may come out of hibernation

  
  

  or diapause, a physiological state of dormancy,

  
  

  prematurely.

  
  
  Fisher attacking Porcupine on thin snow covered terrain
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  This past week, Hix said he started to notice insects

  
  

  flying around, which is weeks earlier than usual.

  Earlier activity means extended mating seasons, which

  
  

  should result in increased populations for many insects.

  There is “a lot of concern” centered around mosquitoes,

  
  

  Hix said, because larger populations could mean an

  
  

  increased risk of West Nile virus and eastern equine

  
  

  encephalitis (EEE.)

  Sam Telford, professor at Tufts Cummings School of

  
  

  Veterinary Medicine, said however, that it is “hard to

  
  

  generalize” what happens to certain populations and

  
  

  the diseases they carry.

  While mosquitoes that overwinter as adults in

  
  

  basements or other abandoned areas may emerge

  
  

  earlier, Telford, who specializes in mosquitoes and

  
  

  ticks, said it may not mean an increase in

  
  

  populations or mosquito-borne diseases.

  In fact, he said, it is “completely unknown” if

  
  

  temperature affects rates of West Nile or EEE,

  
  

  because the occurrences are more often related to

  
  

  air conditions in late summer.

  However, Telford said he would expect the lack of

  
  

  snow this winter could hurt snow-melt mosquitoes,

  
  

  which are “huge nuisance mosquitoes in late May”

  
  

  but do not carry diseases.

  Snow-melt mosquitoes rely on “melting snow to create

  
  

  pools” to lay their eggs. With little snowfall this year,

  
  

  Telford said, he would expect lower birth rates for the

  
  

  insects.

  The weather “could influence the number of ticks,”

  
  

  he said, “but it might not be immediately seen.”

  “Adult ticks are usually inactive under the snow,” he

  
  

  said, but in warmer winter temperatures they may

  
  

  be active and laying eggs.

  This should result in a lot more baby ticks in August

  
  

  or September, he said.

  
  Bobcat with hare
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  On the other hand, Telford said, without snow
  

  winter, we could see ticks actually suffer.”

  Records show warmer winters in New England

  
  

  are

  
  

  usually

  
  

  followed by an increase in Lyme disease.

  During three recent warm winters, 2001-02,

  
  

  2006-07 and 2011-12, Telford said, the

  
  

  Department of Public Health has reported

  
  

  roughly a 50-percent increase in the

  
  

  number of Lyme disease cases in

  
  

  Massachusetts.

  Even small mammals, which are reaping

  
  

  the most benefits from the warm weather,

  
  

  cannot necessarily be expected to be

  
  

  reproducing more, he said.

  Telford said in working with mice, he was

  
  

  expecting they would be reproducing more

  
  

  this winter, but for some reason, they are

  
  

  not.

  “We think we know how things should

  
  

  work,” he said, “but nature always throws

  
  

  us for a loop.”
•  cover, “ticks are 
• 
  
• exposed to the elements, so with the 
• occasional deep 
• freezes this 
•  last year, there was “a record level of
•  fish kills,” in Massachusetts, said Larson.
• movement of amphibians.”

http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/news/study-snowfall-linked-tree-growth-and-function

Study: Snowfall Linked to Tree Growth and Function

Monday, February 8, 2016

Snowfall affects forest tree growth and function well beyond the winter season, says a new study of a dozen Harvard Forest red oak and red maple trees, recently published in the journalEcosystems.

The study authors, Andrew Reinmann and Pamela Templer, both from Boston University, found impacts above- and below-ground when they removed snow from the ground in the study area, allowing the top layer of the soil to freeze.

As a result of the freeze, there were fewer living tree roots the following spring. Surprisingly, red maples affected by the freeze grew more in diameter, but also released far more carbon dioxide from their trunks and branches.

• Read Reinmann and Templer's scientific paper in Ecosystems: Reduced Winter Snowpack and Greater Soil Frost...
• 
  

(Photo by Melody Komyerov courtesy of Boston University)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reduced Winter Snowpack and

Greater Soil Frost Reduce Live Root

Biomass and Stimulate Radial

Growth and Stem Respiration of Red

Maple (Acer rubrum) Trees in a

Mixed-Hardwood Forest

ABSTRACT

Northeastern U.S. forests are currently net carbon (C)

sinks, but rates of C loss from these ecosystems may be

altered by the projected reduction in snowpack and

increased soil freezing over the next century. Soil

freezing damages fine roots, which may reduce radial

tree growth and stem respiration.

snowless New England winter woodlands

We conducted a

snow removal experiment at Harvard Forest, MA to

quantify effects of a reduced winter snowpack and

increased soil freezing on root biomass, stem radial

growth and respiration in a mixed-hardwood forest.

The proportion of live fine root biomass during spring

(late-April) declined with increasing soil frost severity

(P = 0.05). Basal area increment index was positively

correlated with soil frost severity forAcer rubrum, but

not Quercus rubra. Rates of stem respiration in the

growing season correlated positively with soil frost

duration in the previous winter, (R2

LMMðmÞ = 0.15 and 0.24 for Q. rubra and A. rubrum,

 respectively).

Losses of C from stem respiration were comparable to or

greater than C storage from radial growth ofQ. rubra

and A. rubrum, respectively. Overall, our findings

suggest that in mixed-hardwood forests (1) soil freezing

 has adverse effects on spring live root biomass,

 but at least in the short-term could stimulate

above ground processes such as stem respiration and

radial growth for A. rubrum more than Q. rubra, (2)

stem respiration is an important ecosystem C flux and

(3) the increasing abundance of A. rubrum relative to

Q. rubra may have important implications for C

storage in tree stem biomass.