DRIVERS AND FEEDBACKS OF CHANGES IN ARCTIC TERRESTRIAL BIODIVERSITY (CHARTER)

CHARTER will advance adaptive capacity of Arctic communities to climatic and biodiversity changes through modelling of Arctic change with major socio-economic implications and feedbacks. We will combine expertise from Earth System sciences and biodiversity studies within a social-ecological system (SES) and participatory approach. We will address the main objectives: 1) Work with Arctic communities to develop strategies and pathways for reindeer and grazing that reflect and adapt to the changing Arctic. 2) Understand Arctic terrestrial system responses to policy-driven (including greenhouse warming) changes in vegetation cover, permafrost, snow cover, and rain-on-snow (ROS) events using observations at decadal, centennial and recent time scales; 3) Predict the effects of these habitat changes on indigenous and local communities, especially herding and hunting of ungulate herds.