Climate Change in the Arctic- A Hot Subject

The Arctic regions have amazed scientists and researchers for decades for their resilience to things like harsh climate conditions and seasonal darkness. One might assume that living in below freezing weather where there is little vegetation and few land animals would be hard, but what is harder for the wildlife than these extreme living conditions is when their climate changes and their ice starts to melt.



The Arctic is not an easy place to live without climate change problems. Some of the factors that promote survival in the North also make its inhabitants more susceptible to chemical contaminants. For example, the fat that animals use for protection make them more likely to accumulate organ chlorines and other water insoluble chemicals. Due to the atmospheric (and riverine) transport of chemicals, the North is the reservoir of chemicals that have never been locally used; these chemicals often increase in concentration up the food chain - resulting in concern for local wildlife. This also poses a threat for natives in the arctic who eat the animals that contain these chemicals.

For every degree that the world climate changes, the Arctic climate changes at twice that rate. People in the Northern regions are heavily dependent on their regions' biodiversity both for food and for social and cultural reasons. According to the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, “biodiversity benefits people through more than just its contribution to material welfare and livelihoods. Biodiversity contributes to security, resiliency, social relations, health, and freedom of choices and actions.” With the Arctic sea ice retreating, more marine life is exposed to land, making it easier for people to catch them in large numbers. Biodiversity is changing dramatically in the North, the result of overharvesting, global habitat loss in wintering and staging grounds used by migratory species, and, most significantly, climate change. These species will either die or migrate, most likely impose on other species, therefore hindering their survival as well.



And it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone to hear that in the future, if we don't do anything about the problem and the ice continues to melt, vegetation will be severely impacted. For example, the Arctic tree line, the furthest north that trees can grow, will likely move northward, converting the Arctic into tundra forest under more permissible climate conditions. Also, the thawing of permafrost could convert large areas of well-drained lands into wetlands, and species native to the Arctic would begin to die as their main food sources disappear and are replaced by plants and animals more relevant to the new climate. Animals that inhabit the Northern regions such as caribou or the Arctic fox will either become extinct thanks to the lack of available forage as the land adapts and changes, or they will attempt to migrate, imposing on the habitats of other species and thereby hindering their survival as well.

Land animals in the Arctic won't be the only ones to suffer if climate change continues. The timing of the climate change and melting of sea ice in the spring and summer severely impairs the growth of algae at the ice edge. The loss of this seemingly insignificant species would devastate the rest of the Arctic food chain, as this is the main food source for krill, which needs to feed the Arctic cod, which is prey for belugas, narwhals, and seals. The food chain is all connected, so the loss of one of the small species at the bottom would destroy the food chain with each level starving to extinction in a domino effect. While the wildlife attempts to overcome this problem, large fishing companies are given extremely easy access to almost all marine life with all the ice melting. This will result in a grotesque number of fish and mammals being caught and hunted; a number much larger than it would have been had their habitats been protected by the glaciers.



The reduced ice cover and access to seals would limit hunting success by polar bears, with resulting reductions in bear populations. Many species of seals, sea lions, and walruses, especially those inhabiting regions covered by seasonal sea ice, are directly reliant on suitable ice for resting, foraging, reproducing, and moulting. Indirectly, the timing of the formation and melting of sea ice will affect the migration patterns and nutritional status of these animals. A greater volume of shipping through Arctic waters, because of less sea ice and more ice-free navigation channels, may also negatively affect some populations and further pollute the Arctic waters.