Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Research activities enabled: We propose an integrative approach to study caribou socioecology, an under-studied axis of caribou ecology. Social behaviours are emerging as important indicators of population health, with implications for reproductive success and survival. We spotlight the cause and consequence in variability of social and spatial ecology, and link these behavioural and ecological processes to zoogeochemical ecosystem processes. These new GPS devices are imperative to provide a finer resolution of data from which we will be able to test the how resources described by elements and their ratios (carbon:nitrogen), affect animal social dynamics, space use, and movement, which in turn affect the transfer of carbon and nitrogen throughout the ecosystem. Our aim is to further the fundamental ecology, while developing applications to help inform long-term viability of caribou populations.******Equipment Requested: We are requesting 20 GPS enabled Iridium uplink biotelemetry collars for caribou that will be fit onto adult females. We are also requesting 40 VHF collars for caribou calves to fit calves of collared mothers with monitoring devices. It is possible that the Fogo Island Caribou Project is the only existing caribou research program that can economically, and reliably fit adult-calf pairs of caribou with biotelemetry collars.******Why and whom the activities are important: The Fogo Island Caribou Program currently supports elements of 5 PhD student projects for students in Canada and the United States. The programme has historically provided training opportunities for 6 MSc students and 4 international MSc research programs. The program trains highly qualified personnel that are academic track and intend to work in wildlife agencies. The annual field program typically trains 10 HQP in caribou handling and ecology. The program provides a safe and inclusive space to learn fundamental and applied ecology and get hands on experience working with and observing caribou in the field.******Anticipated outcome: Fundamental: We anticipate to further disentangle the correlated relationship between animal social dynamics, space use, and movement, while modeling their consequences to ecosystem processes, i.e., carbon and nitrogen cycles. Applied: We will continue to link behavioural and ecosystem processes to tangible measures of population viability, i.e., reproductive success and survival, which could be used to augment management and conservation plans for caribou.******Benefit to Canada: Caribou populations are in decline globally, including in Canada. Typically, opportunities to study the fine-scale behaviour and ecology of caribou are limited due to their remote distribution. The Fogo Island Caribou Program provides an opportunity to integrate remotely sensed notions about caribou ecology, with fine-scale ethological inferences and link these to conservation-relevant measures of individual fitness and population dynamics.**