Caribou distribution near an oilfield road on Alaska's North Slope, 1978-2001
Noel LE, Parker KR, Cronin MA. 2004. Caribou distribution near an oilfield road on Alaska's North Slope, 1978-2001. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 32(3):757-771
Previous research in the Milne Point oilfield in northern Alaska showed that the density of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in the calving period within 1 km of a road was significantly lower after construction than before construction of the road. This was interpreted as displacement from the road and a functional loss of habitat and has been extensively cited as a documented effect of oilfield development on caribou. We continued this study with additional aerial surveys flown during 1991-2001 and compared caribou numbers and density in 6 1-km intervals from the road over 3 time periods: pre-road construction (1978-1981), early post-road construction (1982-1987), and recent post-road construction (1991-2001). During the recent post-road period, the densities of calves and of all caribou were not significantly lower within 1 km of the road than the densities in the pre-road period. In addition, calf density was higher in the interval within 1 km of the road than in the intervals 1-6 km from the road during the recent post-road construction period. The total number of calving caribou observed in the study area has declined since pre-road construction and early post-road periods, but we found no evidence that caribou using the area during calving avoided areas near the road during the recent post-road period. Numbers of caribou in the study area during the post-calving period (after 20 June) during 1991-2001 were highly variable, but generally were higher than during calving. Analyses of relationships between calving and post-calving caribou densities and distance intervals from Milne Point Road suggested that distributions of calves and adult caribou were not strongly influenced by presence of the road.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Noel, Lynn; Parker, Keith; Cronin, Matthew
- Units
- ARCN , BELA , CAKR , GAAR , KOVA , NOAT
- Keywords
- calving period, Caribou, Displacement, Distribution, habitat use-availability, Human Disturbance, Mammals, North Slope, Oilfield Development, Population Ecology, post-calving period, Rangifer tarandus, Roads, Ungulates