Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CHARTER (Drivers and Feedbacks of Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity)
Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2022-01-31
CHARTER grew out of a desire to better understand the processes that have been driving rapid climate and land use changes in the Arctic. The name comes from the project title: Drivers and Feedbacks of Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity. The project started in August 2020 and will run for 4 years. CHARTER involves 21 research institutions across 9 countries. CHARTER is coordinated d by the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland and the project leader is Research Professor Bruce Forbes.
CHARTER works mainly in European Arctic. Changes in climate and land use affect biodiversity, as well as snow cover, sea ice and permafrost. Changes in these, in turn, have other consequences and feedbacks to Arctic regional climate.
These changes are not merely of academic interest. They are especially felt by those working on the land, such as reindeer herders. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the 2013/4 severe icing event on the world’s most productive reindeer herding region of Yamal, Northwest Russia, where it is estimated that Nenets reindeer herders lost at least 61,000 reindeer, perhaps as many as one fifth of all reindeer in that region. Some herding families lost all their reindeer and have reverted to fishing in order to remain in the tundra while they attempt to rebuild their herds before another such catastrophe may strike. Poor winter grazing conditions in winter 2019/20 led to the death of as many as 15,000 reindeer in Finland, which had large financial consequences for herders along with a substantially increased workload.
Reindeer are obviously an important species for herders and cultures that depend on them. Reindeer are also a key species in the Arctic; they have strong effect on the functioning of the ecosystems. By managing the grazing, reindeer herding as a livelihood has the potential to affect even permafrost region temperatures and, through effects of grazing on vegetation, regional climate.
CHARTER wants to co-develop tools with Arctic communities to better adapt to climatic and biodiversity changes. The project will do this for example through joint data collection, analysis and modeling. CHARTER will look backwards to build a short, medium and long range look at biodiversity, meteorological and snow and ice data. This will build out a picture of change throughout the Holocene period (the last 11,000 years). CHARTER will take a more detailed look at these same changes and drivers over the last 40 years.
CHARTER will also co-produce knowledge with local herders and other practitioners and co-develop optional future pathways for the region. The aim is to develop climate modelling tools so that they better consider also the climate impacts of local livelihoods and related land cover changes. When climate scenarios up to 2050 take into account also relevant Arctic livelihoods, the strategies for adaptation are easier to co-develop. The ambition is that Arctic decision making would better consider the actions by local communities and livelihoods. This would support gearing Arctic land management towards climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
CHARTER works mainly in European Arctic. Changes in climate and land use affect biodiversity, as well as snow cover, sea ice and permafrost. Changes in these, in turn, have other consequences and feedbacks to Arctic regional climate.
These changes are not merely of academic interest. They are especially felt by those working on the land, such as reindeer herders. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the 2013/4 severe icing event on the world’s most productive reindeer herding region of Yamal, Northwest Russia, where it is estimated that Nenets reindeer herders lost at least 61,000 reindeer, perhaps as many as one fifth of all reindeer in that region. Some herding families lost all their reindeer and have reverted to fishing in order to remain in the tundra while they attempt to rebuild their herds before another such catastrophe may strike. Poor winter grazing conditions in winter 2019/20 led to the death of as many as 15,000 reindeer in Finland, which had large financial consequences for herders along with a substantially increased workload.
Reindeer are obviously an important species for herders and cultures that depend on them. Reindeer are also a key species in the Arctic; they have strong effect on the functioning of the ecosystems. By managing the grazing, reindeer herding as a livelihood has the potential to affect even permafrost region temperatures and, through effects of grazing on vegetation, regional climate.
CHARTER wants to co-develop tools with Arctic communities to better adapt to climatic and biodiversity changes. The project will do this for example through joint data collection, analysis and modeling. CHARTER will look backwards to build a short, medium and long range look at biodiversity, meteorological and snow and ice data. This will build out a picture of change throughout the Holocene period (the last 11,000 years). CHARTER will take a more detailed look at these same changes and drivers over the last 40 years.
CHARTER will also co-produce knowledge with local herders and other practitioners and co-develop optional future pathways for the region. The aim is to develop climate modelling tools so that they better consider also the climate impacts of local livelihoods and related land cover changes. When climate scenarios up to 2050 take into account also relevant Arctic livelihoods, the strategies for adaptation are easier to co-develop. The ambition is that Arctic decision making would better consider the actions by local communities and livelihoods. This would support gearing Arctic land management towards climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
So far, work has been performed in seven work packages, led by researchers from across Europe. The project is supported by an advisory group made up of selected experts representing reindeer herders, administrators, relevant ministries and science communication professionals.
CHARTER has two wide cross-cutting themes for all WPs: “Tools and data for Arctic Strategies”, and “Public dialogue on the Arctic”. Proper consideration of these themes ensures both genuine interaction among the WPs as well as applicable and societally relevant outcomes. It is still early days for the project, and published results so far are mainly producing “tools and data” mentioned in the first CHARTER cross-cutting theme. These will nevertheless be valuable in on-going and future political processes, “for Arctic Strategies”, at the EU or national level. Better satellite observations on locally relevant phenomena like rain-on-snow events (provided by WP1), statistics on animal husbandry (complied by WP3) and exploring the impacts of e.g. different reindeer management regimes on regional climate using climate modelling (performed by WP5) are both high-level natural science research and also results advancing adaptive capacity of Arctic communities. This kind of data and tools are essential for decision making, aiming at supporting Arctic communities and traditional livelihoods through climatic and geopolitical changes.
Our second cross-cutting theme is “Public dialogue on the Arctic”. This has been started on various levels, regions and with various stakeholder groups, even though COVID-situation has slowed the process down. In the on-going work in WP6, policy documents, livelihood strategies and assessment reports from Arctic level to sub-national level are being analyzed, to learn how they consider climate-land-use-biodiversity-local community connections. In the present geopolitical situation, this kind of analysis is more timely than ever. This digital infographic shows the main idea of the project and its expected outcomes: https://prezi.com/view/gqDjTrtNES3Mt4hlVUyg/
CHARTER has two wide cross-cutting themes for all WPs: “Tools and data for Arctic Strategies”, and “Public dialogue on the Arctic”. Proper consideration of these themes ensures both genuine interaction among the WPs as well as applicable and societally relevant outcomes. It is still early days for the project, and published results so far are mainly producing “tools and data” mentioned in the first CHARTER cross-cutting theme. These will nevertheless be valuable in on-going and future political processes, “for Arctic Strategies”, at the EU or national level. Better satellite observations on locally relevant phenomena like rain-on-snow events (provided by WP1), statistics on animal husbandry (complied by WP3) and exploring the impacts of e.g. different reindeer management regimes on regional climate using climate modelling (performed by WP5) are both high-level natural science research and also results advancing adaptive capacity of Arctic communities. This kind of data and tools are essential for decision making, aiming at supporting Arctic communities and traditional livelihoods through climatic and geopolitical changes.
Our second cross-cutting theme is “Public dialogue on the Arctic”. This has been started on various levels, regions and with various stakeholder groups, even though COVID-situation has slowed the process down. In the on-going work in WP6, policy documents, livelihood strategies and assessment reports from Arctic level to sub-national level are being analyzed, to learn how they consider climate-land-use-biodiversity-local community connections. In the present geopolitical situation, this kind of analysis is more timely than ever. This digital infographic shows the main idea of the project and its expected outcomes: https://prezi.com/view/gqDjTrtNES3Mt4hlVUyg/
Ambitious aims set in the CHARTER research plan are still valid and we can expect results that are beyond the state of the art. CHARTER’s analysis will include conceptualization of large herbivores (e.g. reindeer/caribou) as drivers of tundra ecosystem state transitions. Team’s initial successful attempts at “fingerprinting” ROS events resulting from sea ice degradation will be expanded. Together, the consortium will pursue a breakthrough in our functional understanding of decadal to centennial time scales of sea ice and terrestrial rangeland dynamics. Given the proposed time depth of CHARTER’s research, the consortium will strive to be at the cutting edge of the new revolution in paleoecology. Large datasets and new analytical tools will be used to understand how biodiversity has changed in the past, how conservation efforts need to take long historical trajectories into account and identify thresholds and tipping points of ecological systems.
By addressing how livelihoods based on pastoralism will continue to co-exist in an Arctic characterized by rapid land use and climate change, CHARTER can facilitate future biodiversity-oriented conservation projects in the Arctic. Utilizing co-development and strongly participatory approach is a way to avoid inadvertently choosing mitigation policies that have unwanted local and regional side effects.
The state-of-the-art in biodiversity conservation theorizes biodiversity management as a public good based on the inclusion of different ways of knowing in order to ensure relevance, legitimacy and credibility. EU initiatives reflect this approach in theory, but have seldom achieved it in practice. CHARTER will provide empirical evidence of how concerns about biodiversity protection, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, can be integrated across knowledge systems and spatial scales.
CHARTER expects to have impact on EU and national policies, and IPCC assessments and other major regional and global initiatives. It will also support the EU Polar Research Cluster and EC bioeconomy strategy, EU space policy and IPBES work.
By addressing how livelihoods based on pastoralism will continue to co-exist in an Arctic characterized by rapid land use and climate change, CHARTER can facilitate future biodiversity-oriented conservation projects in the Arctic. Utilizing co-development and strongly participatory approach is a way to avoid inadvertently choosing mitigation policies that have unwanted local and regional side effects.
The state-of-the-art in biodiversity conservation theorizes biodiversity management as a public good based on the inclusion of different ways of knowing in order to ensure relevance, legitimacy and credibility. EU initiatives reflect this approach in theory, but have seldom achieved it in practice. CHARTER will provide empirical evidence of how concerns about biodiversity protection, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, can be integrated across knowledge systems and spatial scales.
CHARTER expects to have impact on EU and national policies, and IPCC assessments and other major regional and global initiatives. It will also support the EU Polar Research Cluster and EC bioeconomy strategy, EU space policy and IPBES work.