Reindeers’ forging affected due to warming Arctic climate 

Global warming is the primary cause of climate change worldwide. And this is most apparent near the Poles. In fact, records suggest that temperatures in the Arctic region have been rising three times more rapidly than the global annual average. This, in turn, has also increased the climactic variability, impacting many unforeseen environmental concerns. One among them is the enhancing fluctuation between cold and warm temperatures that at first melts the ice and then refreezes it, turning it into a thick ice cover once the temperatures drop again. Apart from this, there are also frequent ice storms that are often regarded as rain-on-snow (ROS) events.  

Now, the effects of such climactic changes in the Arctic are being studied by scientists. They are analysing native Arctic species such as Svalbard reindeer, the smallest of the kind, and is exactly half the size of mainland reindeer. The animal is found only in the isolated Svalbard which is an island located in the Arctic Ocean between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It is one of the northernmost regions of the world that is inhabited by humans and experiences extreme climates, such as short summers and harsh, frigid winters, not to forget its rugged and remote terrain filled with glaciers.  

Turns out that this makes the survival of the tiny and isolated population of Svalbard reindeer quite difficult. Why? Because unlike normal winter when the ground is covered in snow and this reindeer can dig for food, climate change has now resulted in thick sheet of ice that makes the animal gain access to underground vegetation. Needless to say, without access to sufficient food, they can die of starvation. But in a major plot twist, in the last decade their numbers have gone up. In fact, the population has grown from 850 to 1200 in a span of a year. How? Well, it’s as if the reindeers have found their own way out. With warming temperatures, plant growth has enhanced in the region, giving the animal more time until autumn to stock up on their food reserves. Not only that, the species have shifted their diet to popsicle-like grass (graminoid plants) from earlier underground mosses, that are new to the region and poke through ice and snow, making it easier for them to forge. What’s more interesting is that, some of them even increase their overall body masses by consuming and storing more fats prior to the winter, in order to survive without food for a long time and compensated for extremely harsh winter.  

But what needs to be noted is that, uncontrolled global heating does make the reindeers uncomfortable as they are naturally suited to frozen tundra.