Arctic Animals Endangered By Climate Change
Endangered species protections in 2012 due to climate change.
Arctic animals endangered by climate change. Changes in the cryosphere dominate the physical changes that already affect these animals but increasing air temperatures changes in precipitation a. Peter Prokosch GRID. The Arctic is warming at approximately twice the speed of the global average which is shrinking.
As Arctic sea ice vanishes bearded seals may vanish along with it. Climate change poses a fundamental threat to the places species and peoples livelihoods WWF works to protect. Climate change is driving polar bears from the safety of sea ice and on to hazardous dry land and into more conflict with humans.
Rising temperatures have led to ecological changes including the migration of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha to Arctic rivers while behavioural changes in species include earlier breeding times for North American tree swallows. Bearded seals were given US. Today climate change is the biggest threat facing the Arctic and its wildlife.
Four ice seals ringed bearded harp and ribbon seals. Image source Polar Bear. Climate change is taking place more rapidly and severely in the Arctic than anywhere on the globe exposing Arctic vertebrates to a host of impacts.
And two terrestrial mammals cariboureindeer and muskox. Barnacle geese pictured in the scientific base of Ny Alesund in the Svalbard archipelago. Climate change may also be altering the currents and nutrient cycling in some parts of the bearded seals range which may be affecting the abundance of the fish and shellfish the species preys upon.
To adequately address this crisis we must urgently reduce carbon pollution and prepare for the consequences of global warming which we are. Arctic animals cope with climate change. Polar bears for example depend on summer sea ice to hunt seals.