Ecologists debate whether climate change helps or hurts reindeer

MANY people fear that the rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice spells doom for polar bears. The effect of global warming on another famous northern species, the reindeer, is, however, less cut and dried. Until recently, researchers thought reindeer benefit, rather than suffer, from climate change. The lichens, grasses and shrubs they eat grow better in warmer summers, and their populations have been rising. But ...shild Ønvik Pedersen and Jean-Charles Gallet of the Norwegian Polar Institute (N...