Goals:
Our goals are to establish a circumpolar monitoring program of Gyrfalcon and ptarmigan abundance and productivity, and to study their ecology in a sample of sites on a large spatial and temporal scale to understand what factors limit these species distribution and abundance, and how they change over time as the arctic climate warms.
Background:
Responding to climate change may be one of the world's most important and complex endeavors of the 21st Century. Climate change models predict large changes in species’ distributions and the potential for extinctions over the next century, but biotic interactions such as predator-prey, inter- and intra-specific competition, and phenology, add a level of complexity that is difficult to model. Gathering empirical evidence of these interactions and monitoring changes over time may be critical for improving predictions, and making wise choices for conservation of biodiversity.
Nowhere is the effect of climate change on biodiversity, ecology, and biotic interactions likely to be more measurable than in the Arctic. Arctic conservation managers are now seeking solutions and strategies on how to measure and mitigate climate change effects, and how to respond to other anthropogenic impacts in this rapidly changing ecosystem. Top predators, such as birds of prey, are often sensitive to environmental change, and can sometimes serve as early indicators of threat and as models for conservation intervention.
Gyrfalcons and their principal prey, ptarmigan, are widely distributed and far ranging species in the arctic ecosystem, and are therefore candidates for measuring, understanding, and potentially mitigating current and predicted changes in their world. This project aims to gather empirical evidence of Gyrfalcon distribution and abundance and factors that limit them, including predator-prey interactions, and monitor changes over time that may be critical for improving climate model predictions, and making wise choices for conservation of biodiversity.
Recent Results:
This project is in an initial exploration and development phase. In 2011 we provided a grant to Alastair Franke at ArcticRaptors.ca and the Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta, to help initiate studies on Gyrfalcons, Peregrine Falcons and other Arctic raptors on Baffin Island, Nunavut.
Project Links:
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Location Note:
Arctic Canada
Species involved
- Gyrfalcon — Falco rusticolus
People involved in this project:
Combined Federal Campaign # 10639
