Climate Change Arctic Animals
An Arctic fox wearing a satellite GPS collar runs with an egg in its mouth. Credit: Dominique Bertaeux Bylot, Université du Québec à Rimouski
For animals in the Arctic, life is a balancing act. Seasonal cues, such as warmer spring temperatures or cooler temperatures in the fall, tell animals when to migrate, when to mate, and when and where to find food. Predators and prey, birds and mammals alike follow this natural schedule, and an overall shift of just a few days or weeks could have unknown impacts on these animals and ecosystems.
These changes in seasonal timing are already starting – although the shifts differ between species and populations – according to a new study published Nov. 5 in Science that was funded in part by the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). The researchers analyzed data from the Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA), a collection of data from more than 200 research studies tracking nearly a hundred species from 1991 to present, in combination with NASA temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and topographic data. They found that Arctic animals’ movement patterns are shifting in different ways, which could disrupt entire ecosystems.
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“The Arctic is showing more extreme indications of change, ” said Gil Bohrer, a professor and environmental engineer at Ohio State University in Columbus. Sea ice is shrinking, rainfall, and snowfall are changing, and Arctic tundra is turning green in some places and brown in others. “Arctic animals are responding to these changes, they’re responding quickly, and that response is not equal, ” said Bohrer.
This timelapse shows the movement patterns for various animals (colors indicate different animal types) over the course of a year. Animal migration in the Arctic is highly seasonal, as various species and populations move around in search of food, suitable temperatures, and places to mate and raise their young.
The team focused on three examples: a long-term study of eagle migrations, a massive study on caribou populations, and a multi-species study focusing on several predator and prey species.
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In the eagle study, the researchers analyzed when eagles left their wintering grounds to fly north for the summer, based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data collected from 1991 to 2019. On average, migration started about half a day earlier each year – a change that compounded over 25 years to cause a shift of nearly two weeks. “Basically, change is rushing them to go north early, ” said Bohrer. The shift was more pronounced for adult eagles than juveniles, suggesting that the juveniles may be missing out on the mating season or the adults may be reaching their summering grounds before their food sources.
However, the researchers don’t know whether these changes will benefit or harm different animal species, populations, or individuals. For example, in the caribou study, it appeared that certain caribou populations were adapting to the changes in their surroundings. Bohrer says that we’ll likely see some species, individuals, and populations benefitting from change and others harmed by change. “But that fact that we see changes is showing that something big is going on, ” explained Bohrer.
This is the first indication of caribou populations showing an adaptive response to change. Credit: Kyle Joly / National Park Service
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Typically, caribou mate in the fall, are pregnant in the winter, and raise their young in the spring when food is abundant; this schedule is tightly coordinated with environmental patterns. The team analyzed five caribou populations and found that populations living in the northern Arctic – where things are shifting more rapidly due to change – were having offspring earlier to coincide with the changes in their environment, suggesting that these populations are adapting to change. However, the southern caribou populations that are experiencing less rapid environmental changes had offspring at their usual time. The timing of having offspring was also affected by the elevation of the population’s home range. Elevation information came from ArcticDEM, a public-private partnership to create digital elevation models that is funded in part by NASA.
Lastly, the researchers used data from several studies in the AAMA database to figure out how various predator and prey species – black bears, grizzly bears, caribou, moose and wolves – are affected by higher temperatures and increased precipitation. The data for temperature, and precipitation in the form of rain and snow came from NASA’s Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries, or Daymet.
The trends in movement for different species varied widely: some species move more when summer temperatures are higher while others move less, moose and wolves move less in winters with higher snowfalls, and increased summer rain didn’t seem to change movement patterns for any species. But, overall, predator species seemed to respond to change differently than prey species. That causes a mismatch between predators and the prey they hunt for food. To determine the impacts of this mismatch, researchers will need to continue monitoring these populations.The Arctic is a remote place in the northernmost part of the Earth with extreme environmental conditions. Many people may picture large icebergs, vast expanses of snow and animals with stunning white fur when they imagine this polar region.
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But, some other images that are increasingly associated with the Arctic are of these majestic animals stranded on lone icebergs or emaciated from a lack of food. The photo above of a starving polar bear was taken by German photographer and conservationist Kerstin Langenberger and shared more than 51, 000 times on Facebook.
Although Langenberger admits that she can’t demonstrate a direct connection between climate change and the bear she photographed, she doesn’t discount that climate change may have something to do with it.
“Climate change is undeniable, she said. “It is happening and we have to do something about it. And this photo, I can say to all of you: Look at it.
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To fully understand the state of the Arctic, it’s essential to know what climate change is and how different parts of the Arctic and its wildlife are affected by climate change. A few movements are also trying to help with conservation efforts in the Arctic, so there are several ways for you to get involved.
NASA defines climate change as a “long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates.” When climate change is discussed as a pressing issue facing the world, it is because these changes in weather patterns cause many different problems for life on Earth.
Climate change refers to broad weather changes seen globally. On the other hand, global warming is the specific phenomenon of rising average surface temperatures. Climate change is an umbrella term that global warming fits under.
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No area of the planet will escape the effects of climate change, as the Earth only has one climate system. This system is a complex global framework of several components, including the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere. So, climate change will inevitably affect all of the world’s ecosystems.
The Arctic is seeing many changes due to global warming. While average temperatures are rising across the globe, the temperature in the Arctic reportedly rises at three times the global average. We can clearly see these changes in its ocean and polar ice caps.
Every ecosystem is made of an intricate and delicate chain of different species that interact with each other and maintain a balance. When that balance is disrupted somehow, whether by humans or organic problems like disease, all of these species may experience dramatic shifts.
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For example, while the Arctic Ocean has typically been covered in ice for most of the year, that ice is beginning to melt due to increased global temperatures. Because many species rely on sea ice coverage for hunting grounds or to maintain certain living conditions, the ecosystem is thrown into turmoil as the sea ice continues to disappear.
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The primary issue facing the polar ice caps now is unprecedented levels of melting due to global warming. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) reports, “We lose Arctic sea ice at a rate of almost 13% per decade, ” and that we have the potential to see an ice-free Arctic by the summer of 2040.
Another major issue is that global sea levels will rise as these ice caps melt into the ocean, affecting coastal communities, island nations and other environments. The impact of melting ice caps is profound and wide-ranging, from affecting wildlife and global temperatures to food crops and weather patterns.
Climate Change And The Arctic
Arctic wildlife faces many challenges due to environmental effects caused by climate change. For example, global warming poses risks to food access, habitat compatibility and potentially encouraging invasive species and diseases, to name just a few.
It can be difficult to visualize the threats posed by climate change without knowing about the animals that are truly at risk. While the ecosystem of the Arctic is thrown off from climate change, several species are facing impending threats. A few examples include:
Other species at risk from arctic climate change include narwhals, arctic foxes, orcas, lemmings, beluga whales, red knots (wading birds) and the muskox. The threats to
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