Greenland: Warmer weather linked to caribou deaths
(Picture Eric Post) 
Global warming may be the reason for a decrease in the number of caribou calves being born in West Greenland, U.S. researchers said.Biologist Eric Post said data show the timing of peak food availability no longer corresponds to the timing of caribou births, the university said Friday in release.
The study, conducted in collaboration with Mads Forchhammer at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, will be published in the July issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
With temperatures rising, pregnant females find that the spring plants on which they depend to survive have already begun to decline in nutritional value. Post said the plants are peaking dramatically earlier.
“Spring temperatures at our study site in West Greenland have risen by more than 4 degrees Celsius over the past few years,” he said. “As a result, the timing of plant growth has advanced, but calving has not.”
Source: Copyright 2008, United Press International
Date: May 2, 2008
Original URL
Date: May 2, 2008
Original URL
[...] Greenland: Warmer weather linked to caribou deaths“Spring temperatures at our study site in West Greenland have risen by more than 4 degrees Celsius over the past few years,” he said. “As a result, the timing of plant growth has advanced, but calving has not.” … [...]
According to our observations earlyer sprin does not implicate worse conditions in the calving On the contrary warmer sping better for the calves- The reason for lesser fawncrop in West Greenland – I suspect is Winter grazing pastures are worn out (This is form a comment from an avid caribou hunter who walks over vast distances on his caribou hunts. Another reason may also be coposition of the fertile female stocks in the herd The herd may be in a generation leap providing less fawns.
regarding the comment from Aarhus scientist regarding plants blooming earlyer- Yes ok but it does not affect the fawning as the biotob in west Greenalnd spans from the shore of the fiords and up to 500 meters – vegetation in the 300-500 meterrange blooms considerably slower than vegetation in the lower areas this calculus factor must be taken into his research considerations.
Stefan H. Magnusson
Reindeer herder
Reindeer Herding in South Greenland and the warming of the climate.
We are located close to latitude 60N what is similar to Lillehammer Norway.
Our snowmobile season is shortened so for instance last season in 2008 we only had 4 weeks with poor driving conditions thus providing.Lesser posibility for effective reindeer herding- we have allways been rather mechanised here and we are not going bact to basics,
Loke this season we have absolutely no snow on our pastures. This is of course very good for our reindeer herd as acess to food is quite good. But we hafe to do the herding on foot, we will hafe to alther our ways of working slightly towards the basics but in the long run we will shift our snowmobiles out and get a small helicopter. We also operate with Icelandic horses but mainly use them in the holding pastures during the corralling and Roundup,More news next time
Stefan magnusson
This winter we had no snow at all,and most of the fiords that normally have a winter ice conditons where free from ice.
We are definitely now in a climate change.
Stefan