What is a caribous favourite food?
Morgan: Lichen of course. Everybody knows that. Inukshuk: And what could happen to those lichens if these small, ankle-high plants grow bigger and taller? Morgan: Well…They might get…crowded out? Inukshuk: Shaded out, to be precise. They need light too. Across large stretches of the Arctic, lichen communities could suffer and, in turn, so would the caribou. Ryan: That sounds gloomy. But what can you honestly say about global warming’s impact on arctic plants and animals from this one little study site at the top of the world? Inukshuk: Good point. It’s still too early to tell and, as they say, all the data are not yet in. There are indeed several other arctic plant warming experiments exactly like this going on around the world but many of these are just beginning. Though you called these time machines, it will take many years of data from many sites to better understand how these plants – and the animals that depend on them – might respond to climate change. More sites are being e
