Fragile Fruit: Arctic Berries and Climate Change

A low-growing lingonberry bush nestled in forest undergrowth. Photo: Malin K.

The Arctic Institute Resilient Roots Series 2025

Berries are the few fruit-bearing plants capable of surviving in the Arctic and sub-Arctic’s harsh environments. The resilience of Arctic berries, largely due to their low-lying structures and tolerance to cold conditions, has allowed a select number of species to persist where other forms of fruit are absent. This scarcity makes them both ecologically significant and culturally valuable in the High North. They are a key part of the Arctic food web and serve many vital purposes: they are a source of food and medicine, form part of Indigenous communities’ place-based knowledge, and act as an indicator of broader environmental stability and change in the Arctic.

However, Arctic berry systems are far from immune to climate change. Rising temperatures are leading to shifts in snow cover, and changes in the timing of seasons pose a risk to berry pollination dynamics and the suitability of local habitats. As a result, changes in berry distribution often reflect deeper changes in an Arctic region which is coming under increasing climate stress. If Arctic berry populations decline, the repercussions will ripple beyond plants. A few possibilities, among many, are that it would lead to grassier, less hospitable ground, risk the collapse of the broader food chain, and threaten the food sovereignty of many Arctic peoples.

Threadbare Tundra: The Spread of the Crowberry

Among the species bearing the weight of these climatic shifts are crowberries. These are nutrient-rich, soil-stabilising plants whose decline could signal, and result in, far-reaching Arctic disruption. The crowberry’s key role lies in its capacity to construct dense root systems that spread across tundra soil. Vitally, in doing so, it binds together loose soil and thereby prevents erosion. Its shallow and extensive rooting helps to stabilize some of the Arctic’s most fragile layers of ground. Despite its ability to combat habitat degradation, the crowberry faces a very different situation under climate change, especially in comparison to other berries. It is not at risk from climate change; it poses a risk because of it.

Since the crowberry is an evergreen, it is suited to the longer growing seasons and warming winters brought by global warming, giving it more time and space to expand beyond other vegetation. This process is already underway in the Fennoscandia Peninsula, which covers Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. Repeat surveys have recorded a 60 percent rise in crowberry from 2003 to 2023. Reindeer have already been shown to actively avoid these areas, so it is reasonable to anticipate future constraints on human strategic mobility in the Arctic if the abundance of vegetation remains unchecked. This abundance will only grow further as rising global temperatures continue to hit the Arctic. This is a major problem because the crowberry is allelopathic, meaning it releases chemicals that suppress the growth of other plants. As it spreads, it will likely reduce biodiversity and hinder sensitive species altogether. This potentially creates what some refer to as a “green desert”, where one species takes over and turns rich ecosystems into biologically sparse environments.

The Lingonberry: Cultural Security in a Changing Arctic

The Lingonberry faces the opposite problem to the crowberry: a steep decline. It is an evergreen shrub that is deeply woven into the cultural fabric of Arctic and subarctic regions, where its red berries have been a vital resource for centuries. In Nordic and Indigenous Arctic cuisines, lingonberries are more than a food source: they are a living link to traditional knowledge and cultural identity. For Sámi communities, berry picking is not just a method of gathering subsistence; it is a practice that reinforces connection to heritage. Lingonberries also have the potential to serve as vital resources for small indigenous-led businesses that utilise foraged products and provide cultural experiences. Yet, global warming threatens this cornerstone of the Arctic diet.

Shifting growing seasons and competition from aggressive shrubs like the crowberry pose a significant risk to the long-term yield of lingonberries in the Arctic region. Whilst they remain widespread today, the risk of long-term decline threatens to erode and disrupt the intergenerational transmission of land-based knowledge. Therefore, protecting the lingonberry is not merely an ecological concern but a matter of safeguarding cultural security for Arctic Indigenous communities.

The Cloudberry: A Climate Canary

Much like lingonberry, the cloudberry is also prized in High-North cuisine, sought after for its flavor and high vitamin C content. However, cloudberries are also a vital seasonal food for many wild animals who are stocking up on fat reserves. This includes bears, foxes, and many types of birds. Whilst its importance to the food chain is undeniable, the cloudberry also plays a different, indirect, yet vital role. Cloudberry is one of nature’s warning lights when it comes to climate change. It grows in cold, moist places such as Arctic bogs and wetlands. If those places start drying out due to rising temperatures, cloudberries will begin to struggle. The cloudberry depends on consistently moist but well-drained peat to sustain its shallow roots, but the thawing permafrost disrupts the balance of water, which either drowns roots or drains them. Their presence signals that the ‘hydrology’, the science behind how water behaves, is intact: if cloudberries started disappearing, it would mean changes in the water table, likely due to permafrost thawing.

Alaskan communities are already witnessing a decline in the cloudberry, having flagged unpredictable and diminished harvests that threaten food security. A decline in cloudberry represents more than just the damage that climate change has already done; it is a sign of what is to come. If cloudberries were to fail, the consequences would ripple throughout the food chain. Every part of this plant plays a key role. First, the berry itself: mammals of all sizes will be driven away to find new food sources, including berry-eating rodents, which in turn may further impact predators, like owls and Arctic foxes. Likewise important are the cloudberry’s roots, which weave through peat and thus stabilise it; peatland erosion would swiftly hasten without them. Additionally, its flowers play an essential role for pollinators like bees, who would lose a key source of nectar if the cloudberry collapsed in abundance. The decline of the cloudberry is, therefore, a sign that the entire Arctic ecosystem might be in trouble.

A Delicate Balance

The berries of the Arctic illustrate the complex changes that climate change is having on the broader Arctic flora. Whilst global warming is arguably being discussed in global discourse more frequently in relation to southern regions and in other contexts, the impacts on Arctic berry species so far are a warning that demands responsible Arctic governance before the entire food chain collapses. As edible flora, the loss of berries doesn’t just constitute ecological decline: it’s a future security crisis. Whilst these edible plants crucially ensure ecosystem stability, they are also core to the nutritional autonomy of the Arctic and its cultural continuity. A decline in edible flora, namely berries, would erode regional self-reliance in areas that already struggle with food security, and increase vulnerability to external shocks. This would cause cascading risks beyond just food scarcity: across Indigenous health, identity, and governance.

Anthony Heron is a Research Associate and Deputy Editor-in-Chief at The Arctic Institute.