The treeless ecosystem of mosses, lichens, and berry plants is giving way to shrub land and boreal forest. As scientists study the transformation, they are discovering that major warming-related events, including fires and the collapse of slopes due to melting permafrost, are leading to the loss of tundra in the Arctic. By Bill Sherwonit During […]
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, January 2010 — A long-term study showing the changes in habitat associations of polar bears in response to sea ice conditions in the southern Beaufort Sea has implications for polar bear management in Alaska. Karyn Rode, a polar bear biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska and one […]
By Michael FitzpatrickScience reporter, BBC News Scientists have uncovered what appears to be a further dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed. Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping solar heat. The findings come from measurements of carbon fluxes around the north of […]
December 14, 2009–Like polar bears, ringed seals (above, a newborn rests in the snows of Nunavut, Canada) depend on summer sea ice in the Arctic for their survival. No one knows what will happen to the seals and other species if polar summer ice completely disappears due to global warming–which may occur in the Arctic […]
The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a “triple whammy” of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity, according to new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The conditions have […]
(University of Colorado at Boulder) The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a “triple whammy” of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity, according to new study led by the University of […]
By John Roach for National Geographic News December 10, 2009 A decade ago, global climate change was largely considered a problem for the distant future. But it seems that future has come sooner than predicted. One of the most remarkable, and alarming, environmental changes to occur over the last decade is the melting of Antarctic […]
By Tim BradnerAlaska Journal of Commerce Coastal erosion isn’t the only climate-related problem confronting rural communities. Health officials now are concerned about food and water safety in northern villages as warming temperatures thaw ice cellars and melting permafrost increases the organic content in rivers, creating problems in village water treatment plants. As for erosion, it […]
Reporting by Henriette Jacobsen; Writing by John Acher COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Inuit communities need funds to adapt to climate change in the Arctic, including measures to build communal deep freezers to store game because warming is reducing their hunting season, an Inuit leader said on Friday. The Inuit, the indigenous people of Greenland, Canada, […]
By Jonathan LiewPublished: 2:40PM GMT 08 Dec 2009 New pictures show that polar bears are beginning to cannibalise each other as global warming destroys their hunting grounds. The images, taken in Hudson Bay, Canada, around 200 miles north of the town of Churchill, Manitoba, show a male polar bear carrying the bloodied head of a […]
