Drivers and Feedbacks of Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity

Drivers and Feedbacks of Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity

CHARTER aims to advance state-of-the-art (SOTA) knowledge on Arctic biodiversity change and social-ecological systems (SES) on four critical fronts: i) Feedbacks: To understand transitions in vegetation cover, energy balance and cryospheric change at centennial, decadal, and present-day time scales; ii) SES and biodiversity: To understand the effects of biodiversity changes on indigenous/local communities and traditional livelihoods, e.g. reindeer herding; iii) Modelling: To integrate biochemical/permafrost soil carbon exchange, sea ice and albedo into an Earth System Model (ESM), and incorporate these into the latest Arctic Regional Climate modeling efforts; and iv) Policy: To develop strategies supporting Arctic communities with co-benefits and synergies between adaptation, mitigation and policy implications. To accomplish these, CHARTER combines expertise from Earth System sciences, biodiversity indices and SES research. CHARTER is an ambitious effort to advance SOTA modelling of 21st century Arctic change with major socio-economic implications and feedbacks for the Cryosphere. We bring together our strongly participatory approaches that incorporate indigenous/local communities’ ways of knowing regional changes with SOTA research on circumpolar climate dynamics and long-term palaeoecological studies. CHARTER collates and processes truly transdisciplinary quantitative and qualitative empirical datasets for a holistic view that can be modeled. Arctic residents and stakeholders work alongside scientists to identify risks and viable adaptation strategies in relation to projected changes and future resilience in Arctic SESs. CHARTER combines natural sciences with ESM and participatory approaches to leverage the untapped potential for wild ungulate and livestock management to regulate global climate feedbacks through biogeoengineering. CHARTER’s results will lead to new tools and data for implementing sustainable strategies and establish public dialogue on the Arctic.