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Global warming harming plant-eating animals in the Arctic mongabay.com May 21, 2008
Examining the feeding habits of caribou in West Greenland, researchers led by Penn State Associate Professor of Biology Eric Post found that the animals are "arriving at their breeding grounds too late in the season to enjoy the peak availability of food" and "suffering from a reduced ability to locate the few high-quality plants that remain". "This combination of time and space constraints is a double-whammy for species in highly seasonal environments," said Post. "Moving through space--across the landscape--is a strategy used by these animals to deal with shifts in the time their forage plants are available, but now climate change is really putting this strategy to the test."
The researchers say that warming temperatures are causing the caribou's primary food sources to emerge earlier in the year — before pregnant females reach their feeding grounds. Adding to their difficulties, high temperatures is reducing the variability of the landscape so that patches that patches of plants that in the past might have been late bloomers are now also emerging earlier. "Variation in the landscape provides an insurance policy for animals, like caribou, that count on being able to climb to the top of the next hill or go across the next valley to find plants that are still newly emergent and highly nutritious," Post said. "Climate change is reducing the value of that insurance policy."
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