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Rapport144.Pdf (3.695Mb) 144 NORSK POLARINSTITUTT Rolf A. Ims, Inger G. Alsos, Eva Fuglei, Åshild Ø. Pedersen and Nigel G. Yoccoz An assessment of MOSJ _ The state of the terrestrial environment in Svalbard NORSK POLARINSTITUTT / NORWEGIAN POLAR INSTITUTE, FRAMSENTERET / FRAM CENTRE, NO-9296 TROMSØ, NORGE/NORWAY, www.npolar.no 1 2 Rapportserie / Report Series no. 144 Rolf A. Ims, Inger G. Alsos, Eva Fuglei, Åshild Ø. Pedersen and Nigel G. Yoccoz An assessment of MOSJ _ The state of the terrestrial environment in Svalbard The Norwegian Polar Institute is Norway’s central governmental institution for management-related research, mapping and environmental monitoring in the Arctic and the Antarctic. The Institute advises Norwegian authorities on matters concerning polar environmental management and is the official environmental management body for Norway’s Antarctic territorial claims. The Institute is a Directorate within the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Norsk Polarinstitutt er Norges hovedinstitusjon for kartlegging, miljøovervåking og forvaltningsrettet forskning i Arktis og Antarktis. Instituttet er faglig og strategisk rådgiver i miljøvernsaker i disse områdene og har forvaltningsmyndighet i norsk del av Antarktis. Instituttet er et direktorat under Klima- og miljødepartementet. 3 Norwegian Polar Institute Fram Centre, NO 9296 Tromsø, Norway Authors: Rolf A. Ims, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway Inger G. Alsos, Tromsø Museum, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway Eva Fuglei, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø Åshild Ø. Pedersen, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø Nigel G. Yoccoz, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway ©Norsk Polarinstitutt 2014 Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, NO-9296 Tromsø Norsk Polarinstitutt, Framsenteret, 9296 Tromsø www.npolar.no [email protected] Technical editors: Ellen Øseth and Gunn Sissel Jaklin, Norwegian Polar Institute Design: Jan Roald, Norwegian Polar Institute Cover photo: Nicolas Lecomte, Norwegian Polar Institute Printed: May 2014 ISBN: 978-82-7666-307-5 ISSN: 0803-0421 4 Contents Executive summary 6 1 Introduction 7 1.1 MOSJ: Aims and means 7 1.2 Environmental monitoring: Recent developments 8 1.3 Mandate 9 2 Background: Ecosystem, monitoring and assessment approaches 10 2.2 The terrestrial ecosystem in Svalbard and Jan Mayen 10 2.1.1 Geographic, climatic and biogeographic settings 10 2.1.2 Outlines of the terrestrial food webs 10 2.2 Pressure‒impact models of Svalbard terrestial food web 11 2.3 Indicators of MOSJ Terrestrial 13 2.3.1 Pressure indicators 14 2.3.2 Ecological state indicators 17 3 Assessment 18 3.1 Pressures 18 3.1.1 Climate 18 3.1.2 Harvesting 21 3.1.3 Pollution 21 3.1.4 Traffic 21 3.2 Ecological state 22 3.2.1 Arctic fox 22 3.2.2 Svalbard reindeer 25 3.2.3 Svalbard rock ptarmigan 27 3.2.4 Geese 28 3.2.5 Vegetation 29 3.2.6 Introduced species 30 3.2.7 Ecosystem processes 31 4 Conclusions and recommendations 32 4.1 State of the Svalbard terrestrial environment versus national goals 32 4.1.1 Impacts of traffic 32 4.1.2 Impacts of harvesting 32 4.1.3 Impacts and risk of human activities on the environment 32 4.1.4 Maintenance of biodiversity, wilderness and reference areas for research 33 4.1.5 Final comment on national goals 33 4.2 The design of MOSJ Terrestrial: General critiques and recommendations 33 4.2.1 Critiques 33 4.2.2 Recommendations 34 5 Literature 37 5 Executive summary report have been able to make reasonable assessments of the present state of the terrestrial ecosystems in Svalbard, it is owing to The present report is mandated to provide essential information provided by scientific studies not included in MOSJ. (1) an ecosystem state assessment of terrestrial Svalbard based on quality-assured science, emphasizing the pressure impacts of Recommendations climate change, invasive or increasing species, harvesting, pollution In order to facilitate the nation’s expressed high ambitions of and traffic, showcasing Svalbard as one of the best managed wilderness areas in the world, MOSJ needs to be radically upgraded by means of a (2) an evaluation of MOSJ with respect to its aims of facilitating set of new long-term thematic programmes that specifically target ecosystem state assessment, ecosystem management and achieve- environmental pressure–response processes according to interna- ments of national key goals for the environment, and tionally recognized protocols for ecosystem-based monitoring and management. COAT – Climate-Ecological Observatory for Arctic (3) recommendations on how MOSJ could be improved to better Tundra, for which a comprehensive science plan just has been fulfill its aims. developed and quality-assured by the Fram Centre, is recommended to become the major thematic programme targeting the enormous Ecosystem state assessment management and scientific challenges facing the vast and fast future The pressures likely to cause major state changes in the terrestrial climate changes in the terrestrial parts of the Norwegian Arctic. ecosystems in Svalbard are first and foremost the rapid climate changes in the Arctic region. Trends in biologically relevant climate It is also recommended that three thematic programmes are devel- variables show that Svalbard is presently on the verge of “a novel oped to complement COAT in order to target invasive species, climate” characterized by winters without very low temperatures red-listed species and the effects of increased traffic. Each of the (< -20°C) and summers with extended growth seasons (>5°C). thematic programmes should be responsible for monitoring, analy- Accordingly, above ground biomass of tundra plants has been ses and reporting according to internationally recognized princip- reported to increase, in turn contributing to the increase of some les of adaptive monitoring. MOSJ is then recommended to take a populations of Svalbard reindeer. However, short-term population heuristic role in terms of integrating information across monitoring declines due to episodes of rain-of-snow events (ROS) presently programmes and thereby provide an operative interface between drive most of the inter-annual dynamics of reindeer and all other environmental science, management and policy making. whole-year resident terrestrial vertebrates in Svalbard. These research findings have contributed substantially to a better understanding of recent climate impacts on High-arctic ecosystems. However, the lack of historical analogues of the vast climate changes projected to take place over the next decades in combina- tion with invasive/increasing species and expanding human traffic and activities, make reliable projections of future states of the ecosystem almost impossible to derive. A host of introduced species is already in place in Svalbard, but still restricted to the immdiate vicinity of human settlements. Presently, the largest risks caused by increasing species are the destructive impacts of native geese on the vegetation. The increase in goose abundance is mainly due to management outside the Arctic. Among the locally manageable environmental pressures in Svalbard, wildlife harvesting appears to be presently well regulated and sustainable at present, but needs to be regularly re-assessed Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). Photo: Eva Fuglei, Norwegian Polar Institute as other stressors, in particular climate change, increases. Similar- ly, although disturbance impacts of increased traffic presently are mostly local, future impact assessments need to estimate interact- ions between traffic, spread of invasive species and climate change. Red-listed species are presently not prioritized by MOSJ or other monitoring activities in Svalbard. Thus the information about recent changes of rare species in Svalbard is too limited to be assessed robustly. Evaluation of MOSJ By only providing population time series of three animal species from a restricted area in western Spitsbergen, MOSJ terrestrial is presently unable to fulfill its aims of being an integrated moni- toring system for the terrestrial environment of Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Major deficiencies are due to the monitoring system not including fundamental components of the terrestrial ecosystem (e.g. vegetation) and state variables adequately representing influential environmental pressures (e.g. biologically relevant attributes of the climate). Consequently, by its incomplete scope MOSJ is not equipped to document the presence, the magnitude and the causes Purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia). Photo: Anders Skoglund, Norwegian of ecosystem state changes in an era when such changes are expect- Polar Institute ed to have unprecedented pervasive impacts on arctic biodiversity and ecosystem functions. To the extent the authors of the present 6 1 Introduction 1.1 MOSJ: Aims and means A full account of the background, aims and means of MOSJ is giv- en in Sander (2006) in the first MOSJ assessment in 2003. Sander (2006) discusses mindfully the adherence of MOSJ to internation- ally recognized standards of environmental monitoring at the time, especially with reference to the challenges that ought to be met for MOSJ to attain its stated aims. As an introduction to the present assessment of the terrestrial environment in Svalbard (hereafter termed “MOSJ Terrestrial”) we paraphrase and discuss the points made by Sander (2006), which both relate to recent national and international developments in environmental monitoring (Section 1.2) and to the mandate of
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