Reconstructing the historical decline of lichen cover across the reindeer fence of the Finnish–Norwegian border
Wallenius, Tuomo; Bjerke, Jarle W.; Erlandsson, Rasmus; Kolari, Tiina H. M.; Räsänen, Aleksi; Tahvanainen, Teemu; Tømmervik, Hans; Winquist, Emelie; Virtanen, Tarmo (2025-05-13)
Springer
13.05.2025
Wallenius, T., Bjerke, J.W., Erlandsson, R. et al. Reconstructing the historical decline of lichen cover across the reindeer fence of the Finnish–Norwegian border. Ambio (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02171-3
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© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202505143419
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202505143419
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
We analysed the history behind the current contrasting lichen covers of two adjacent reindeer herding districts at the Finnish–Norwegian border. We conducted vegetation field inventories across the border fence and reconstructed a lichen cover history from 1959 to 2020 using aerial and satellite images. The oldest images showed only a slight difference in lichen cover between the different sides of the border fence. Since the late 1950s, lichen cover has decreased in both districts. At present, lichen biomass is approximately three times greater in in the Norwegian winter pasture than in the Finnish herding district, which has less strictly defined seasonal pastures. A lichen biomass model indicated that lichen intake by reindeer cannot explain the decline in lichen biomass in either of the districts. We suggest that the lichen decline is mainly due to trampling and foraging-induced loss, while other unknown ecological and climatological factors may also be involved.
We analysed the history behind the current contrasting lichen covers of two adjacent reindeer herding districts at the Finnish–Norwegian border. We conducted vegetation field inventories across the border fence and reconstructed a lichen cover history from 1959 to 2020 using aerial and satellite images. The oldest images showed only a slight difference in lichen cover between the different sides of the border fence. Since the late 1950s, lichen cover has decreased in both districts. At present, lichen biomass is approximately three times greater in in the Norwegian winter pasture than in the Finnish herding district, which has less strictly defined seasonal pastures. A lichen biomass model indicated that lichen intake by reindeer cannot explain the decline in lichen biomass in either of the districts. We suggest that the lichen decline is mainly due to trampling and foraging-induced loss, while other unknown ecological and climatological factors may also be involved.
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