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Assessment of the Barren Ground Caribou Die‐off During Winter 2015–2016 Using Passive Microwave Observations
Author(s) -
Dolant C.,
Montpetit B.,
Langlois A.,
Brucker L.,
Zolina O.,
Johnson C. A.,
Royer A.,
Smith P.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2017gl076752
Subject(s) - snow , winter storm , environmental science , arctic , storm , climatology , spring (device) , atmospheric sciences , physical geography , oceanography , geology , geography , meteorology , mechanical engineering , engineering
In summer 2016, more than 50 Arctic Barren Ground caribous were found dead on Prince Charles Island (Nunavut, Canada), a species recently classified as threatened. Neither predator nor sign of diseases was observed and reported. The main hypothesis is that caribous were not able to access food due to a very dense snow surface, created by a strong storm system in spring. Using satellite microwave data, a significant increase in brightness temperature polarization ratio at 19 and 37 GHz was observed in spring 2016 (60% higher than previous two winter seasons). Based on microwave radiative transfer simulations, such anomaly can be explained with a very dense snow surface. This is consistent with the succession of storms and strong winds highlighted in ERA‐Interim over Prince Charles Island in spring 2016. Using several sources of data, this study shows that changes in snow conditions explain the caribou die‐off due to restricted foraging.