Arctic Animals Under Threat From Melting Ice Caps

[GordMay]

“Arctic Animals Under Threat From Melting Ice Caps” ~ by Real Wild Channel
➥ https://youtu.be/eapLS_5dVu0

This video explores the profound impact of climate change on the Arctic, focusing on Wrangel Island, a pristine and unique refuge for Arctic wildlife. As global temperatures rise, the critical ice habitat that many species rely on is rapidly disappearing, leading to severe consequences for animals like polar bears and various plant species.

More from Real Wild ➥ https://www.youtube.com/@RealWild

[GordMay]

2027: the year with no sea-ice?
That’s possible, according to a new study [1] published Dec 3, in the journal Nature Communications.
Scientists say the Arctic’s first ice-free day is now inevitable, and irreversible, regardless of how humans alter greenhouse gas emissions.
An ice-free summer by 2027, they say, is the worst-case scenario — but things can still change if we can limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Previous expectations had the Arctic Sea loss predicted around 2030, but these results reveal that an ice-free day could occur as early as late summer 2027.
Nine other simulations, while less likely, predict that it could occur within the next three to six years.
Scientists define ‘ice-free’ as the sea ice area dropping to less than one million square kilometres, in a short time, which is considered a climate tipping point.

[1] “The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030" ~ by Céline Heuzé & Alexandra Jahn
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54508-3

[5BTM]

Not looking for a pissing match about climate, your choice, catastrophe, change or natural variation.

https://www.polarbearscanada.ca/en/p...subpopulations

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by 5BTM

Not looking for a pissing match about climate, your choice, catastrophe, change or natural variation.

What we do know is that Arctic ecosystems have never known the pace of warming we are currently experiencing - and that changes are inevitable.
Temperatures in the Arctic have risen more than two times faster than the global average, meaning sea ice [a crucial component to Arctic ecosystems] is rapidly disappearing, negatively affecting marine ecosystems, and biodiversity.

[GordMay]

Polar Bears:
Scientific name: Ursus maritimus
Inuktitut Name: Nanuq

The IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group [PBSG] lists the polar bear as a “vulnerable species”, citing sea ice loss from climate change as the single biggest threat to their survival; as well as human activities, such as hunting, oil and gas development, and industrial activities in the Arctic, that increase the risk of exposure to pollutants, and toxic substances.
These challenges, along with the potential introduction of new predators, and competition for food, due to climate change, pose a significant threat to the survival of the polar bear population. *

The ice is the foundation of Arctic marine life, the ecosystem on which bears rely for every aspect of their lives.
It is where they mate, and raise their cubs.
Sea ice is also an essential habitat for the polar bear’s primary food, ringed seals, as they pup and rest on the ice.
Current knowledge shows that polar bears have some capacity to adjust to the warming Arctic, but the loss of sea-ice habitat may be happening too rapidly to allow for adaptation, and there are no substitutes [on land] for the fat-rich seals, on which the bears depend.

In addition to climate warming, other challenges to the bears include increased commercial activities, conflicts with people, pollution, disease, inadequate habitat protection [of denning and seasonal resting areas], and the potential for over-harvest in smaller, or declining, polar bear populations.

The number of polar bears, worldwide, is not increasing.
Some populations are recovering, after their numbers were vastly reduced by uncontrolled hunting, in the 1960s, but that potential for growth is running head first into declining carrying capacity, in some regions, due to loss of sea ice habitat.

Related to this, residents of many communities in Hudson Bay are seeing more polar bears. These polar bears are increasingly getting into food caches, entering camps, and posing risks to communities, and residents.
The observation that “people are seeing more bears, in and around sites of human activities” is real evidence of a change from the past conditions northern residents knew.
Evidence shows that, in the Hudson Bay system, polar bear body condition has been declining, bears are having fewer cubs, fewer cubs are surviving after birth, and the population size has declined.

These two different pieces of knowledge/evidence are easy to integrate: As malnourished bears spend more time on land, for longer periods, more are venturing into settlements, where they are looking for food, leading to increased polar bear-human conflicts.

Based on an aerial survey in 2021, Canada's Western Hudson Bay population dropped by 27 percent, in just five years, from 842 bears to 618, continuing the declining trend of the past 30 years.
Previous aerial surveys showed a drop of 11 percent from 2011 to 2016. The population estimate is now roughly half of what it was in the 1980s, when studies using a different technique showed 1,200 bears.

The Southern Beaufort Sea population [along the northern coast of Alaska and western Canada] plunged by about 40%, over a 10-year study period, from 2001-2010, dropping from about 1,500 to 900 bears. More recent population estimates are not yet available.

* “Status Report on the World’s Polar Bear Subpopulations” ~ IUCN/PBSG [October, 2024]
➥ https://www.iucn-pbsg.org/wp-content...l_2024Oct7.pdf

Population Status ➥ https://www.iucn-pbsg.org/population-status/

Learn more about the scientific methods employed by polar bear researchers throughout the Panarctic:
➥ https://www.iucn-pbsg.org/#top