Development – Caribou Interactions
- We decided that the experience of the Central Arctic Caribou Herd over the last 15 years offers the best model for simulating the potential effects of oil development on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Range on the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
- We worked with researchers responsible for monitoring movements of the Central Arctic Herd during calving and post-calving (Cameron, in press). We developed graphic representations documenting a shift in caribou calving aggregations over the fifteen year period (see figures below)
- Oil development activities are one of several factors that may have caused the Central Arctic Caribou Herd to shift south over the past 15 years. Other factors could include vegetation changes and changes in predator populations.
- To assess potential effects of similar kinds of shifts in location of the core calving area of the PCH on available forage quantity and quality, we shifted annual PCH cores to avoid a hypothetical development infrastructure in the 1002 Area of ANWR by at least 4km.
- We inventoried the shifted cores using AVHRR, NDVI, and satellite data to estimate forage quantity at calving and accumulation of high quality forage during the lactation period following calving. We compared the inventories from the shifted cores to baseline, unshifted, inventories to estimate changes in forage quantity and forage quality.
- ISER applied for, and was awarded, a grant of $15,000 from ARCO, Inc. to enable Steve Murphy of Alaska Biological Research to help us examine the relationships between the distribution of the Central Arctic Herd, oil development, vegetation, and predators. He will help us to construct scenarios for changes in Porcupine Caribou Herd behavior given oil development on the coastal plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Range. Mr. Murphy has studied the Central Arctic Herd as a caribou biologist for 16 years.
- We are requesting $29,576 in additional funds to develop a GIS database incorporating Central Arctic Caribou distribution, vegetation, and predator data for the period 1985 – 1995. These funds will cover the purchase of AVHRR imagery, travel to Sioux Falls and Washington DC to select images, image manipulation, and GIS technician services. We will use the database to examine alternative hypotheses for the observed shift in the Central Arctic Herd over the past 15 years. Results of the analysis will be applied to oil development scenarios for the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
Questions here? Contact Brad Griffith ffdbg@aurora.alaska.edu
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This page revised July 15, 1997.