Impacts of climate warming on reindeer herding require new land-use strategies

Abstract

Climate in the Arctic has warmed at a more rapid pace than the global average over the past few decades leading to weather, snow, and ice situations previously unencountered. Reindeer herding is one of the primary livelihoods for Indigenous peoples throughout the Arctic. To understand how the new climate state forces societal adaptation, including new management strategies and needs for preserved, interconnected, undisturbed grazing areas, we coupled changes in temperature, precipitation, and snow depth recorded by automatic weather stations to herder observations of reindeer behaviour in grazing areas of the Laevas Sámi reindeer herding community, northern Sweden. Results show that weather and snow conditions strongly determine grazing opportunities and therefore reindeer response. We conclude that together with the cumulative effects of increased pressures from alternative land use activities, the non-predictable environmental conditions that are uniquely part of the warming climate seriously challenge future reindeer herding in northern Sweden.

The decreasing availability of reindeer forage in boreal forests during snow cover periods: A Sámi pastoral landscape perspective in Sweden

“…In the context of Sa ´mi reindeer pastoralism, Behnke (2000) argued that lichens were such key forage resources, and that the snow cover period (hereafter including ice) profoundly shaped reindeer-vegetation interactions. In Sweden, the interactions identified in earlier work by Fynn (2012) and Behnke (2000) can be exemplified in more recent case study research (Rosqvist et al 2021) that combines weather data, GPS tracking of reindeer and Sa ´mi pastoralist knowledge. The latter study shows that reindeer grazing patterns during the snow cover period are strongly determined by (sudden) changes in weather (especially in autumn and early-winter), which create snow conditions that reduce lichen accessibility (Rosqvist et al 2021).…”

“…In Sweden, the interactions identified in earlier work by Fynn (2012) and Behnke (2000) can be exemplified in more recent case study research (Rosqvist et al 2021) that combines weather data, GPS tracking of reindeer and Sa ´mi pastoralist knowledge. The latter study shows that reindeer grazing patterns during the snow cover period are strongly determined by (sudden) changes in weather (especially in autumn and early-winter), which create snow conditions that reduce lichen accessibility (Rosqvist et al 2021). At the same time, however, the Sa ´mi pastoral landscape has been significantly transformed by human interventions.…”

“…The latter is created in late-autumn/early-winter, and they lock away ground lichens until spring, possibly even resulting in mould formations (ibid. ; see also Rosqvist et al 2021). Furthermore, a range of other snowpack characteristics such as snow hardness/depth and ice layer formations at different levels of the snowpack affect, for example, how much energy is required for cratering (Heggberget et al 2002;Inga 2009;Roturier and Roue ´2009;Eira et al 2013).…”

Reindeer Husbandry and Global Environmental Change

“…Precipitation and temperature shifts during late autumn and early winter determine snow conditions at the base of the snowpack and thus access to ground vegetation (e.g. Rosqvist et al 2021). A late rut, the absence of snow, formation of ground ice due to variable weather -combined with low lichen biomasses (Chapter 4) -can cause herds to disperse over a wide area while searching for food.…”

“…Formation of ground ice makes the ground vegetation layer harder to access ("locked pastures"). Even a single intensive snowfall on unfrozen ground or ROS event can severely affect grazing conditions for the rest of the winter (Rasmus et al 2018;Rosqvist et al 2021). Therefore, deep and/ or icy snow may increase reindeer mortality and reduce calving success.…”