2009/05/09 by Liv S. Vors, Mark S. Boyce · 4 citations
Health Professions · Environmental Science · #Indigenous Studies and Ecology #Marine animal studies overview #Species Distribution and Climate Change #Circumpolar star #Climate change #Geography #Arctic #Range (aeronautics) #Population #Ecology #Physical geography #Environmental science #Biology #Oceanography
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01974.x
openalex publication_date 2009/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract Caribou and reindeer herds are declining across their circumpolar range, coincident with increasing arctic temperatures and precipitation, and anthropogenic landscape change. Here, we examine the mechanisms by which climate warming and anthropogenic landscape change influence caribou and reindeer population dynamics, namely changes in phenology, spatiotemporal changes in species overlap, and increased frequency of extreme weather events, and demonstrate that many caribou and reindeer herds show demographic signals consistent with these changes. While many caribou and reindeer populations historically fluctuated, the current, synchronous population declines emphasize the species' vulnerability to global change. Loss of caribou and reindeer will have significant, negative socioeconomic consequences for northern indigenous cultures.