The reintroduction of Wood Bison to the Innoko River drainage in western Alaska has gotten a lot of coverage in the media in recent weeks. However, one aspect of this effort that has been absent from those stories is the role this species may play under future climate scenarios, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Reintroducing Wood Bison could be an important element that enables rural, subsistence residents to buffer the impact of global climate changes on their local food resources.

Models predict interior Alaska will continue to get warmer and drier in coming decades. The melting of permafrost, already well underway, will lead to more xeric soils. These changes are expected to lead to increased frequency and intensity of fire and widespread change from the current taiga forest and shrub-steppe dominated landscape to extensive grasslands. Such changes will likely favor grazing species, like Wood Bison, over the primary large ungulates of the region today, moose and caribou.

Archeological evidence suggests that Wood Bison were once widely distributed across interior Alaska and northern Canada. During much of the Pleistocene era, interior Alaska was covered in grasslands that supported an ungulate megafauna dominated by grazers, such as bison and mammoth. As these grasslands converted to taiga forest and shrub-steppe during the Holocene era, the carrying capacity for grazers declined. In fact, some scientists argue that the reduction in habitat contributed to extirpation of Wood Bison from Alaska in the recent epoch. Climate change may result in a rapid reversal of that trend, leading to more extensive grasslands in the relatively near future. If that happens, the niche for a large grazing species could expand while that of browsers, like moose, declines.

The culture and economy of interior Alaska's rural villages continues to be closely tied to the land and waters. Studies by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Subsistence Division document the importance of local, wild foods to both physical and psychological nourishment. Although Wood Bison have been absent from Alaska for at least a few hundred years, this species is still part of the oral tradition in some villages and support for the reintroduction has been strong since the idea was first raised over 25 years ago.

The people of Alaska's rural villages are being affected by the environmental consequences of global forces beyond their control. Sea level rise, delayed freeze-up and winter storm-driven erosion along the western coast have forced some villages to take drastic measures ? including relocating the entire village. Ocean acidification and warming may affect salmon runs reducing availability of this important resource. Climate change is projected to lead to landscape scale conversion of habitat from taiga forest and shrub-steppe to grasslands, resulting in lower productivity for moose and caribou, important food sources for people in the region.

In this context, the reintroduction of Wood Bison to interior Alaska could help set the stage for transitioning local food resources as climate-driven habitat change occurs. Diversifying a portfolio of investments is a proven strategy in times of uncertainty. Adding bison to the biological diversity of interior Alaska may be a good hedge against the uncertainty of climate impacts on habitats of interior Alaska in the coming century. (cs)