Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic
Climatic warming has direct implications for fire-dominated disturbance patterns in northern ecosystems. A transforming wildfire regime is altering plant composition and successional patterns, thus affecting the distribution and potentially the abundance of large herbivores. Caribou (Rangifer tarand...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4081032 2023-05-15T14:48:22+02:00 Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic Gustine, David D. Brinkman, Todd J. Lindgren, Michael A. Schmidt, Jennifer I. Rupp, T. Scott Adams, Layne G. 2014-07-03 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4081032 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24991804 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100588 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24991804 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100588 This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. PDM CC0 Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100588 2014-07-13T00:45:12Z Climatic warming has direct implications for fire-dominated disturbance patterns in northern ecosystems. A transforming wildfire regime is altering plant composition and successional patterns, thus affecting the distribution and potentially the abundance of large herbivores. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are an important subsistence resource for communities throughout the north and a species that depends on terrestrial lichen in late-successional forests and tundra systems. Projected increases in area burned and reductions in stand ages may reduce lichen availability within caribou winter ranges. Sufficient reductions in lichen abundance could alter the capacity of these areas to support caribou populations. To assess the potential role of a changing fire regime on winter habitat for caribou, we used a simulation modeling platform, two global circulation models (GCMs), and a moderate emissions scenario to project annual fire characteristics and the resulting abundance of lichen-producing vegetation types (i.e., spruce forests and tundra >60 years old) across a modeling domain that encompassed the winter ranges of the Central Arctic and Porcupine caribou herds in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic. Fires were less numerous and smaller in tundra compared to spruce habitats throughout the 90-year projection for both GCMs. Given the more likely climate trajectory, we projected that the Porcupine caribou herd, which winters primarily in the boreal forest, could be expected to experience a greater reduction in lichen-producing winter habitats (−21%) than the Central Arctic herd that wintered primarily in the arctic tundra (−11%). Our results suggest that caribou herds wintering in boreal forest will undergo fire-driven reductions in lichen-producing habitats that will, at a minimum, alter their distribution. Range shifts of caribou resulting from fire-driven changes to winter habitat may diminish access to caribou for rural communities that reside in fire-prone areas. Text Arctic Rangifer tarandus Tundra Yukon PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Yukon PLoS ONE 9 7 e100588 |
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Research Article Gustine, David D. Brinkman, Todd J. Lindgren, Michael A. Schmidt, Jennifer I. Rupp, T. Scott Adams, Layne G. Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic |
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Research Article |
description |
Climatic warming has direct implications for fire-dominated disturbance patterns in northern ecosystems. A transforming wildfire regime is altering plant composition and successional patterns, thus affecting the distribution and potentially the abundance of large herbivores. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are an important subsistence resource for communities throughout the north and a species that depends on terrestrial lichen in late-successional forests and tundra systems. Projected increases in area burned and reductions in stand ages may reduce lichen availability within caribou winter ranges. Sufficient reductions in lichen abundance could alter the capacity of these areas to support caribou populations. To assess the potential role of a changing fire regime on winter habitat for caribou, we used a simulation modeling platform, two global circulation models (GCMs), and a moderate emissions scenario to project annual fire characteristics and the resulting abundance of lichen-producing vegetation types (i.e., spruce forests and tundra >60 years old) across a modeling domain that encompassed the winter ranges of the Central Arctic and Porcupine caribou herds in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic. Fires were less numerous and smaller in tundra compared to spruce habitats throughout the 90-year projection for both GCMs. Given the more likely climate trajectory, we projected that the Porcupine caribou herd, which winters primarily in the boreal forest, could be expected to experience a greater reduction in lichen-producing winter habitats (−21%) than the Central Arctic herd that wintered primarily in the arctic tundra (−11%). Our results suggest that caribou herds wintering in boreal forest will undergo fire-driven reductions in lichen-producing habitats that will, at a minimum, alter their distribution. Range shifts of caribou resulting from fire-driven changes to winter habitat may diminish access to caribou for rural communities that reside in fire-prone areas. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gustine, David D. Brinkman, Todd J. Lindgren, Michael A. Schmidt, Jennifer I. Rupp, T. Scott Adams, Layne G. |
author_facet |
Gustine, David D. Brinkman, Todd J. Lindgren, Michael A. Schmidt, Jennifer I. Rupp, T. Scott Adams, Layne G. |
author_sort |
Gustine, David D. |
title |
Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic |
title_short |
Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic |
title_full |
Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate-Driven Effects of Fire on Winter Habitat for Caribou in the Alaskan-Yukon Arctic |
title_sort |
climate-driven effects of fire on winter habitat for caribou in the alaskan-yukon arctic |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4081032 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24991804 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100588 |
geographic |
Arctic Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Yukon |
genre |
Arctic Rangifer tarandus Tundra Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Rangifer tarandus Tundra Yukon |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24991804 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100588 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. |
op_rightsnorm |
PDM CC0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100588 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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7 |
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e100588 |
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