Spatiotemporal patterns in vegetation and reindeer dynamics: the importance of long-term and large scale climate fluctuations.

My Phd aims to understand how large-scale climatic patterns control long-term dynamics of vegetation and reindeer in Svalbard. The terrestrial climate, which shapes plant and animal fluctuations, is linked to sea-ice cover and regional climate proxies. Understanding the underlying role of such large-scale oscillations is essential to climate impact studies. AFG will enable me to sample necessary data for my thesis. This includes plant samples for retrospective annual growth analysis, data on reindeer presence/absence/density, and reindeer demography for analysis of fluctuations in vital rates and population growth.