Climate change is a prolonged process and does not affect an ecosystem suddenly. Camera traps do not provide any information regarding how precipitation and temperature is fluctuating daily, seasonal, or yearly. In this case, which alternate method could be more effective to monitor the impact of climate change on hibernation in mammals?
But If camera traps could also be used two questions arise here:
what should be the duration of the study? I don't think 3-4 years of monitoring could be enough to get reliable results. Secondly, only camera traps are enough to monitor the animals?
Yes camera trapping is an effective technique to monitor the hibernation period in mammals under climate change. But this need to support with the climate data of the area. This may also be done with placement of temperature loggers.
Hello Babar; Perhaps you have access to historical climatic data for your study area. If so you can compare those data with that you accumulate yourself. Do you already have emergence dates for the species you are studying? Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
But how long we exactly need to deploy cameras in the field to explore the impact of climate change? I don't think 3-4 years data could be enough????????
Hello Babar; As I said before. If you already have emergence dates for the species you are interested in, then your new data can be compared with those historical records. If you don't have historical data, then, you are correct that you'll need to accumulate records over a longer period.
I once did a project about fire successions in ant communities and it took 10 years of continuous sampling to get the needed data. Cheers, Jim Des Lauriers
If you need long term-data, then you'll have to camera-trap over many years. Camera-traps are very effective for documenting periodic emergence in hibernating species, as well as final emergence. Most modern cam-traps also record temperature and moon phase so a separate temperature data-logger is not necessary. You can also get camera-traps that access cell service so that you can monitor them remotely. Keeping batteries charged is the greatest challenge over the long term—it gets very expensive. Many camera-traps also permit attachment of an external battery such as a car battery for long-term use in remote areas.
Dear Kurt
I think no. Relying on temperature recorded by camera traps can not provide provide the climate change data. Camera traps could only record temperature when capture an animal while passing in front of it. Climate change is something els. Its an overall change and needs long term data
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