OPP-PRF: Finding a Future using the Past: Woodland Caribou Ecology in a Changing Arctic

Caribou are an ecologically and culturally important species in the Arctic, but their long-term survival is threatened by modern climate change. In the last century, caribou populations have declined considerably throughout their circumpolar range, with many herds shrinking by more than 50% in size. Wildlife managers and scientists must attempt to navigate an uncertain future for this culturally significant mammal, yet focusing solely on modern data provides a limited window into an animal’s ecology. Studying how a species has responded to changes in their environment in the past can greatly inform how they may respond to changes in the future, making the fossil record highly useful for modern conservation challenges. This research will use both modern and paleontological data to investigate how caribou are impacted by changing climactic and environmental conditions. The project will be undertaken in close collaboration with local Canadian and First Nation partners, and results will be used to inform ongoing conservation and management of this threatened species. Further, this project will be leveraged toward a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) at Brown University to broaden participation in polar science. This project will focus specifically on northern mountain woodland caribou, a threatened ecotype that congregates on alpine ice patches during the summer to escape biting insects, leaving behind dung that becomes permanently frozen in layers of ice for millennia. Researchers will use this unique—but climatically threatened—paleorecord to establish how caribou diet has changed in response to climactic shifts during the Holocene using fecal DNA metabarcoding. This approach will produce taxonomically precise dietary inferences that are rarely achievable from fossil records. Additionally, researchers will use GPS satellite collar data on modern Yukon herds to investigate the dependence of northern mountain woodland caribou on ice patches and how it influences their summer habitat selection. A more detailed understanding of caribou ice patch use is essential for quantifying the impacts of future ice loss as well as interpreting paleoecological data from the ice patch record. This project will address key gaps in our understanding of caribou ecology while further expanding cutting-edge genomic methods for ice-preserved samples. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.