Frozen winters define life at high latitudes and altitudes. However, recent, rapid changes in winter conditions have highlighted our relatively poor understanding of ecosystem function in winter relative to other seasons. Winter ecological processes can affect reproduction, growth, survival, and fitness, whereas processes that occur during other seasons, such as summer production, mediate how organisms fare in winter. As interest grows in winter ecology, there is a need to clearly provide a thought-provoking framework for defining winter and the pathways through which it affects organisms. In the present article, we present nine maxims (concise expressions of a fundamentally held principle or truth) for winter ecology, drawing from the perspectives of scientists with diverse expertise. We describe winter as being frozen, cold, dark, snowy, less productive, variable, and deadly. Therefore, the implications of winter impacts on wildlife are striking for resource managers and conservation practitioners. Our final, overarching maxim, “winter is changing,” is a call to action to address the need for immediate study of the ecological implications of rapidly changing winters.

中文翻译：

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寒冷气候冬季生态学的九个格言

寒冷的冬天定义了高纬度和高海拔地区的生活。然而，最近冬季条件的快速变化凸显了我们对冬季生态系统功能相对于其他季节的了解相对不足。冬季生态过程会影响繁殖、生长、生存和健康，而在其他季节发生的过程，例如夏季生产，会调节生物体在冬季的生存方式。随着人们对冬季生态学的兴趣日益浓厚，有必要明确地提供一个发人深省的框架来定义冬季及其影响生物的途径。在本文中，我们从具有不同专业知识的科学家的角度提出了冬季生态学的九个格言（基本原则或真理的简明表达）。我们将冬天描述为冰冻的、寒冷的、黑暗的、下雪的，生产力低下、多变且致命。因此，冬季对野生动物的影响对资源管理者和保护从业者来说是惊人的。我们最后的总体格言“冬天正在改变”，呼吁采取行动，解决立即研究快速变化的冬天的生态影响的需要。