Evaluating impact of climate change on Reindeer habitats

Reindeer husbandry in Norway comprises around 40% of the whole country’s surface area. Livelihood of indigenous herders Sámi almost fully depends on the well-being of their herds. The majority of the herds is concentrated in the northernmost county of Norway – Finnmark. Current climate conditions in the Arctic bring warmer and longer summers that enhance plant productivity and reduce the duration of the period of snow cover. However, at the same time some pastures are being overexploited by infrastructure development or simply overgrazed. In the following research the author tried to identify and assess the current changes in land use / land cover with the help of remote sensing, to model transition potential and predict future land cover of the study area, and to model reindeer habitat suitability of current and future pastures. It was found that the area of mountain birch forest has been expanding as well as the barren land area with very sparse vegetation at high elevations of summer pastures. On the opposite, the area of mountain heath and shrubs has been decreasing. In terms of reindeer habitat suitability, there are no significant changes happening. However, the unsuitable area is slowly expanding. Also, the developed methodology showed how remote sensing and GIS-based modeling can be essential tools in assessment of reindeer habitat suitability.