Arctic Climate Change

What's Happening?
1. Global Warming
  1. Earth is so anthropogenically altered ex: deforestation + deseration
Effects on Wildlife
1. Physical change to the environment
2. Introduction to new species
3. Temporal effects on food webs
Physical Changes to Environment
1. Longer open water season
  1. Makes it unsuitable for animals to have annual movements
2. Reduced permafrost/frozen ground
3. Increased storm intensity
4. rain-on-snow and freezing rain
Effects on Polar Bears
1. Less time on ice
  1. Less time to feed
  2. Fewer seals
  3. Starvation and lower reproductive sucess
2. Increased cannibalism due to longer open water season and poorer condition
Effects on Weather
1. Strong wind storms
  1. Environmental abandonment
  2. Losses of eggs and chicks
2. Late winter rain
  1. Flooding of dens and decrease in pup mortality
Intro to new species
1. Killer whale sightings
2. bowhead whales increasing because of decrease in hunting

Resource summary

	Created by 19eh94 about 11 years ago