What does the future hold for West Greenland’s barren-ground caribou?

West Greenland’s barren-ground caribou are a key species for ecosystems and local and indigenous communities, but their response to changes in climate, harvest regimes, land use, and increasing competition with muskox remains uncertain.

Researchers from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the Gjærevoll Centre are working on a spatially explicit model to explore these questions. The team is developing a conceptual framework of feedback loops between herbivores and the landscape. This model looks at how caribou influence vegetation, and how vegetation in turn shapes their distribution and abundance. It also considers the role of muskox, which share the same habitats after being introduced to the focal region in the 1960s for hunting purposes.

By combining ecological knowledge with scenarios of climate, harvest and land-use change, the project aims to provide new insights into the future of caribou in West Greenland. This research can support management decisions, ensuring that caribou populations remain both ecologically sustainable and culturally and economically valuable for Arctic communities.