In the dark Arctic winter, a strange clicking moves across the tundra — not branches, but reindeer tendons slipping over bone, an adaptation that helps them stay connected when vision fails. Scientist Michael Palace spent more than a decade there mapping change. He didn’t expect that the reindeer — and the Sámi who herd them — would retrain how he listens, and how he does science.
Michael Palace is an environmental scientist and professor at the University of New Hampshire whose research combines remote sensing, drones, field ecology, and geospatial science to study environmental change across Arctic, tropical, and temperate ecosystems. His work has been supported by NASA, NSF, USDA, USAID, USGS, DOD, and DOE. He is also an electronic musician and field recordist whose creative work explores the intersection of sound, technology, and the environment.
