Starting the clock on the CARMA Network: Global change impacts on human/Rangifer systems in the CircumArctic

Although aboriginal communities have been experiencing and coping with caribou abundance and scarcity for millennium, western science has only been accumulating systematic data for approximately forty years, a period that started with caribou lows, continued with almost universal increases, and, since the 1990s, has seen dramatic widespread population declines. Also during this forty-year period, the management of the herds in North America has shifted from central regulation to local control sparked by aboriginal land claims settlements. As herds decline, the groups responsible have been asking questions about causes of declines and whether with increased development, human activity, climate change and more efficient hunting methods, the herds will recover. Moreover, they seek assistance in knowing what can be done to halt the declines and facilitate recovery. For the few herds that have not declined or only begun to decline, experiences gained will be an invaluable tool for managers. That collective experience needed to be formally coordinated, a task that has been the primary objective of the CARMA (CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment) Network. CARMA is an international network which focuses on the impacts of global change on the world's wild Rangifer (reindeer and caribou) herds. It is part of a system of networks under the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program. CARMA's priorities revolve around six 'synthesis' questions: (1) How important are seasonal ranges to Rangifer? What are the relative contributions of different seasonal ranges to fecundity, pathogens (parasites and diseases), body condition and survival? (2) What is different about the herds? How consistent, or variable, are the relationships among herds? (3) What causes herds to grow or decline? Is there any common suite of input (habitat) or output (demography) variables that indicate direction of herd growth? (4) How important are pathogens and predators? In what ways do pathogens and predators affect productivity, habitat use and distribution? (5) How important is human harvest to caribou and reindeer herd growth or decline? Are human effects on population abundance additive or compensatory? (6) How are people responding to change now and how might they respond in the future? What are the patterns of human community response (mitigation, adaptation, transformation) to change in caribou abundance, distribution, fecundity, health, and body condition?