Alaska's Caribou in a warming climate

National Parks Traveler is excerpting the National Parks Conservation Association's report on climate change and the affects on national parks.

This excerpt explains how caribou in Alaska are being impacted by a warmer planet.

Ice fields are shrinking, ice sheets are breaking up, forest fires and insect outbreaks are increasing, permafrost is melting, and coastal villages are disappearing into the sea.

For caribou, one of the Earth’s great iconic species, these climate-related shifts are expected to bring many changes, some good, some not so good, and some unknown. Cows and calves require lush spring vegetation for vital nutrients during the critical period around calving and early development.

Climate change will affect when that spring vegetation appears, potentially putting the green-up out of sync with calving, and leaving adults and newborns without adequate nutrition.

With climate-change forecasts predicting a warming of as much as 5 degrees centigrade throughout the Arctic, a trend that is likely to lead to earlier plant germination, will caribou be able to advance their biological clocks and keep calving when food is most available?

Read the full story: Climate change and national parks: caribou in Alaska

Photo from National Parks Traveler