Cumulative Effects of Human Developments on Arctic Wildlife

• Published in: Wildlife monographs 2005-07, Vol.160 (1), p.1-36
• Main Authors: JOHNSON, CHRIS J., BOYCE, MARK S., CASE, RAY L., CLUFF, H. DEAN, GAU, ROBERT J., GUNN, ANNE, MULDERS, ROBERT
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Arctic; barren-ground caribou; Biological and medical sciences; Canis lupus; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; cumulative effects; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; gray wolf; grizzly bear; Gulo gulo; human disturbance; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus; resource selection function; Ursus arctos; wolverine
• ISSN: 0084-0173; 1938-5455
• DOI: 10.2193/0084-0173(2005)160[1:CEOHDO]2.0.CO;2

: Recent discoveries of diamondiferous kimberlite deposits in the Canadian central Arctic led to unprecedented levels of mineral exploration and development. The cumulative effects of such activities are an issue of concern for government regulatory agencies, regional and international conservation organizations, wildlife managers, and indigenous peoples. We investigated the impacts of human activities and associated infrastructure on the distribution of Arctic wildlife in 190,000 km2 of the Taiga Shield and Southern Arctic ecozones 400 km northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. We used covariates for vegetation, interspecific interactions, and human disturbance features to develop seasonal resource‐selection models for barren‐ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus), gray wolves (Canis lupus), grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), and wolverines (Gulo gulo). We used an information‐theoretic approach to select 11 seasonal models for the 4 species. Nine models were good predictors of species occurrence and vegetation covariates were important components of all models. Mines and other major developments had the largest negative affect on species occurrence, followed by exploration activities, and outfitter camps. We did not, however, record strong avoidance responses by all species during all seasons to each disturbance type (i.e., major developments, mineral exploration sites, outfitter camps) and for some models carnivores selected for disturbance features (i.e., occurred closer to sites than comparison random locations). We used a geographic information system (GIS) to extrapolate each seasonal resource‐selection model to the study area and quantified the reduction in habitat effectiveness as a function of modeled and hypothetical disturbance coefficients. Across all models, grizzly bears and wolves demonstrated the strongest negative response to disturbance and corresponding reduction in habitat effectiveness, followed by caribou and wolverines. The largest seasonal effect was recorded for caribou during the post‐calving period, where model coefficients suggested a 37% reduction in the area of the highest quality habitats and an 84% increase in the area of the lowest quality habitats. This is the first study to demonstrate the cumulative effects of multiple sources of human disturbance for caribou, wolves, bears, and wolverines found across the Canadian central Arctic. Resource selection models and corresponding maps of important habitat