Northern Riches and Rangifer Risks: A review of the Impacts of Resource Extraction for Caribou and Reindeer

Éloïse Lessard, Philip Walker, Eric Vander Wal

As the global demand for energy continues to rise rapidly, northern ecosystems—i.e. Arctic, subarctic, and boreal regions—are especially at risk due to their rich mineral and hydrocarbon potential. The expansion of infrastructure associated with extractive industries often impacts species and may ultimately contribute to population declines, particularly for those less resilient to environmental changes like Rangifer tarandus. If we aim to support effective conservation and mitigation measures for Rangifer as resource extraction intensifies, there is an urgent need to compile their range of response recorded toward resource extraction. We present a scoping review of 70 studies addressing the impact of mineral and hydrocarbon extraction on Rangifer to synthesize the evidence currently available in the literature, uncover trends in results, and identify remaining knowledge gaps. We recorded effects for various Rangifer populations impacted by resource extraction, with most of the studies concluding that such activities had a significant negative impact on Rangifer, ranging from impacts on 1) distribution and habitat selection, 2) movement and behaviour, 3) forage, contaminants and body condition, and 4) vital rates and demographic. Our work highlights the need to implement long term non-invasive contaminant surveys and to uncover mechanisms linking contaminant levels and behavioural responses to vital rates to better understand the long term impact of these activities on demographic trends.