Abstract
Sheep grazing may influence the critical autumn, winter, and spring range conditions for reindeer, but the nature of this interaction is not known. Assuming only negative affects is premature and presently undocumented. Sheep could either a) improve range conditions through grazing facilitation or b) deteriorate conditions through interference, over-utilization, or trampling (delayed competition). The project aims to determine whether sheep summer grazing leads to facilitation or delayed competition for reindeer on autumn, winter, and spring ranges. To accomplish this, one will study reindeer's year round use and feeding preference in Setesdal-Ryfylke, and relate this to quantity and quality of graminoids and grazing intensity by sheep during summer. With a controlled experiment, one will also study how agricultural land in Northern Norway could be used in a dual-species grazing system for semi-domestic reindeer and sheep. Establishing this system could ultimately improve reindeer production and the socioeconomic and cultural interaction between reindeer pastoralists and coastal farmers. Information from this project can provide complementary knowledge towards long-term natural processes and contribute to designing management models for improving optimal range use and avoiding delayed competition.
Norway