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https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/457858/reindeer-caribou-climate-change-warming-decline>
"It’s bad enough that climate change is ruining the dream of a white Christmas
for many people, as warming makes snow in some regions less likely.
Now, apparently, it’s coming for reindeer, too.
Reindeer aren’t just creatures of Christmas myth but real animals — a kind of
deer that live in the Arctic, from northern Europe and Russia to North America,
where they’re commonly known as caribou. These animals are remarkably adapted
to cold weather, sporting thick fur, a snout that warms the air they take in,
and uniquely structured hooves that help them shovel snow to find food, such as
lichen. But they’ve also survived bouts of Arctic warming that occurred
thousands of years ago, thanks to their ability to travel long distances in
search of colder habitats.
These adaptations are, however, no match for modern climate change. The Arctic
is warming quickly from a higher baseline temperature compared to natural
fluctuations in the distant past.
Over the last few decades, wild Arctic reindeer populations have declined by
about two-thirds, from 5.5 million to around 1.9 million, largely due to
warming, according to previous research. Rising temperatures can affect
reindeer health directly — causing the animals to overheat and get sick — and
indirectly by limiting their supply of food.
Now, it’s clear those declines will likely continue. A new study in the journal
Science Advances found that if the world doesn’t quickly rein in greenhouse
gas emissions, the global wild reindeer population, including caribou, could
plummet by nearly 60 percent by the end of the century. Those declines will be
far more severe in North America, where they could exceed 80 percent, according
to the study’s models, which reconstructed 21,000 years of reindeer population
data using fossil records, DNA, and other data sources. That’s because North
America is expected to lose more habitat that can support reindeer to warming
than elsewhere, said Damien Fordham, a study author and researcher at the
University of Adelaide.
Even under a more modest emissions scenario — in which countries cut back what
they spew into the atmosphere — the study projects steep population declines.
You can see these results in the chart below, which shows projected declines
based on a high and moderate emissions scenario, respectively."
Via Joyce Donahue.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
