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pdf Loss of connectivity among Peary caribou following sea ice decline Popular

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Loss of connectivity among Peary caribou following sea ice decline

Debbie Jenkins
Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program, Trent University

Lecomte, Nicolas, Canada Research Chair in Polar and Boreal Ecology and Centre d’Études Nordiques, Department of Biology, University of Moncton, Moncton, New-Brunswick, E1A 3E9, Canada
Schaefer, James, A., Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9L 0G2, Canada
Olsen, Steffen M. Danish Meteorological Institute, Lyngbyvej 100, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Swingedouw, Didier, UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC-OASU-Université de Bordeaux, Allée Georoy St-Hilaire 33615 Pessac, France
Côté, Steeve D., Département de Biologie and Centre d’Études Nordiques, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada
Pellissier, Loïc, Landscape Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland &
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Yannic, Glenn, LECA - Laboratoire d’Écologie Alpine – UMR CNRS 5553, Université Savoie Mont Blanc –73376 Le Bourget-du-Lac, France

Global warming threatens to reduce connectivity through significant and rapid changes to sea ice. Here we examine how past changes in sea-ice extent modulated population connectivity and forecast the long-term viability of island caribou under accelerated warming scenarios in the most complex archipelago of the Arctic. Using genetic fingerprinting and future sea-ice projections, we contrast genetic mixing in island-dwelling Peary caribou to continental-migratory caribou and explore the impact of spatial and temporal changes in sea ice extent. We found a strong correlation between genetic and geodesic distances for both Peary and continental caribou (Mantel’r=0.61, P


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