Tundra herbivore-vegetation feedback
Tundra herbivore-vegetation feedback
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TerrEco - Spatial patterns of plant-herbivore feedback in Greenland
TerrEco - Spatial patterns of plant-herbivore feedback in Greenland
@ Laura Barbero Palacios
TerrEco studies different scenarios potentially altering major drivers of the feedback loop between large herbivores’ distribution and their foodscape. Specifically, we investigate how environmental and land-use changes alter caribou and muskox distribution and abundance - which alter their foodscape through herbivory (grazing, trampling, fertilizing). In turn, the changes in resources availability, quantity and quality at the landscape level influences these herbivores' distribution and densities. Although generalizable to numerous systems, we here model these spatial dynamics in West Greenland - along a climatic gradient from the inland ice to the open ocean, in a region that includes the Aasivissuit – Nipisat UNESCO world heritage . This site is central for its millennia of caribou hunting traditions by local communities, and more recently for its diversities of local economies emerging from muskox hunting. A sustainable management of this rapidly changing ecosystem is essential.
TexNet - Implications of changes in tundra herbivore diversity: West Greenland in a multiscale circumpolar exp.
TexNet - Implications of changes in tundra herbivore diversity: West Greenland in a multiscale circumpolar exp.
A TexNet herbivore exclosure experiment will soon be established in West Greenland! The project is newly funded by UArctic and relates to the thematic network on herbivory. More soon
Caribou & muskox population monitoring, dynamics and management
Caribou & muskox population monitoring, dynamics and management
Monitoring methods
Monitoring methods
Choosing the most appropriate methodology to monitor wildlife will depend on the research question of managers and scientists, as well as the species and terrain characteristics influencing its detectability (e.g., low density, diurnal, migrating, ruggedness). We summarized a roadmap for monitoring methods here.
Telemetry and capture programs
Tracking wildlife remotely with GPS-collars (telemetry) and/or by re-sighting marked animals inform on their habitat use and on which drivers (seasonality, extreme weather events, landscape of fear) influences their movements.
Such a spatial-ecology program started in Spring 2024 in West-Greenland and we will soon tell you more on this exciting program.
On Svalbard, several inland and coastal populations are monitored with long-term capture-mark-recapture program and telemetry. We follow female reindeer throughout their life, tracking their growth, body masses, reproduction and movements. Read our report here. Picture: M. Le Moullec
Distance sampling
Distance sampling is particularly well suited to count non-herding wildlife in open landscape and provides important information on detection probability associated with abundance estimations. This method is used to monitor caribou and muskox in West-Greenland (from helicopter), as well as on Svalbard (on foot) during an extensive field campaign from 2014-2016. Read more in Le Moullec et al. 2019 and the press release here. Picture: M. Le Moullec
Total counts
Total count is the main monitoring method of Svalbard reindeer for long-term time-series conducted by the Norwegian Polar Institute (on foot, see MOSJ.no) and by the Governor of Svalbard (helicopter). Although these methodologies lack information on detection error, the repeatability of total count on foot is high when conducted in a well delimited and open landscape (read more on the blog here and in Le Moullec et al. 2017).
On Greenland, we also use total counts for small, well defined, areas with high detection probabilities. Picture: M. Le Moullec
Investigating the potential of UAV, i.e., drones.
In summer 2021, we compared reindeer strip transect counts from drone with transects from distance sampling (on foot) and total counts (from helicopter). Still many challenges to overcome with new technologies! Read more in Paulsen et al. 2023. Picture: Richard Hann
Population dynamics and spatial synchrony
Population dynamics and spatial synchrony
Page under construction! For now you can read our study Hansen et al. 2019
Management - advices to Naalakkersuisut (the Government of Greenland)
Management - advices to Naalakkersuisut (the Government of Greenland)
The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the Government of Greenland work in close collaborations.
Do you want to know more about hunting regulations in Greenland, check here for caribou and muskox (Kalaallisut and Danish).
You can further read on management advices by the institute, check here for land mammals (Kalaallisut and Danish).
(Svalbard - Do you want to know about management regulations and status of Svalbard reindeer, check the info from Sysselmesteren, MOSJ and Miljødirektoratet. Read also our sub-species status report here)
Winter rain effects on tundra vegetation - implications for herbivores
Winter rain effects on tundra vegetation - implications for herbivores
Icing experiments - Effects of warmer and wetter high Arctic winters on vascular plant ecology
Icing experiments - Effects of warmer and wetter high Arctic winters on vascular plant ecology
As the Arctic climate is warming rapidly, how will plant phenology, productivity and reproduction be affected by increasingly frequent extreme warm spells leading to rain-on-snow and icing events in winter?
To answer this, we run two vegetation experiments in high arctic Svalbard, supported by a highly motivated team with who we shared many hours on the tundra! The experiments are:
A long-term winter icing and summer warming field experiment. It run since winter 2015/2016! Read more on Le Moullec et al. (Preprint).
A vegetation transplant experiment, designed as a common garden, investigating effects of winter icing and thaw-freeze events. It ran from 2018 to 2021. Last summer was the big harvest of the garden where we dissected each turve into separated species to study the treatment effects on above- and below- ground biomass. Read the Master thesis of I. Helløy and H. Røssum.
Retrospective growth reconstruction
Retrospective growth reconstruction
What is the role of different climate drivers in shaping spatiotemporal patterns of arctic plant growth?
Obtaining long time-series of plant growth from the remote high Arctic is a challenge. Luckily, we can reconstruct it from one visit in the field, bringing our tiny shrubs back to the lab to read their annual ring growth. These rings are a few micrometres thick, if even present... A tedious work of cross dating within and between plants is crucial.
Read more in Le Moullec et al. 2018 and Le Moullec et al. 2020
Ancient and modern population genetics
Ancient and modern population genetics
Over the ten years that I scanned Svalbard tundra in details, fascinated over its hidden treasures and after much training, I could develop a sense for 'where too look' to find ancient reindeer bones and antlers. The tundra is a great freezer, conserving the remains of the ones that once inhabited it - although most bones and antlers you may see are from modern times and on their way to be decomposed. A few, though, made it through millennia becoming subfossils. Teaming up with collaborators expert in genomics, we are studying population genetic changes across unique time-scales (from fresh carcasses to subfossils of 7,000 years BP) and spatial-scales (across entire Svalbard) in the project - ColdRein lead by NTNU-Museum.
Check out all these fascinating questions:
Sea-ice cover reduction and population isolation? Peeters et al. 2020
Effects of population translocation on genetic diversity and inbreeding? Burnett et al. 2023
Isolated small populations and genome erosion? Dussex et al. 2023
Effects of overharvesting and near extinction on population structuring and genetic diversity? Kellner, Le Moullec et al. 2024
What is the colonization route from high-Arctic reindeer/caribou ? Holt et al. 2024
Read more about ColdRein and watch this video! ColdRein: Unearthing reindeer's secrets to fast adaptation in the Arctic
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