Microclimate Research Suggests Climate Change Cutting Caribou Birth Rates- New Scientist

Common understanding has it that as climate change raises temperatures, spring will – and in some cases already does – start earlier. The question is: what effect will this have on the animals that depend on spring? A seven-year study in Western Greenland suggests the effect won't be good for the local caribou. The study shows how changes in a finely-tuned ecosystem can have wide-reaching consequences.

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus, also known as reindeer) time their pregnancy and migration to coincide with springtime in Greenland, because the young plants and leaves are rich in the nutrients they need to lactate and feed their young. As spring progresses across the landscape, so do the caribou.

Eric Post of Penn State University in Pennsylvania, US, and colleagues decided to find out how global warming would affect springtime plants in Greenland and how, in turn, the changes would have knock-on effects on the caribou population. Their results suggest that caribou are already producing fewer calves as a result of spring changes.

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But the researchers also found that the growth rates of plants over different parts of Western Greenland were becoming more similar. This is the result, they say, of spring rolling out across the region ever more quickly. Normally, when plants in one region no longer produce the nutritious young leaves the caribou need, they can move on to a different part of the landscape which is still in the early stages of growth. But not if spring rolls out much faster and there are no young leaves left.

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http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13952-baby-caribou-hit-by-climate-double-whammy.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news7_head_dn13952