Climate Change and the Arctic

Despite a stupid line about climate change opening up “new economic opportunities for local communities,” this is a really good run-down of the impact of climate change in the Arctic as the planet will set another record for warmth in 2015.

Arctic Ecosystems

Climate change has already had an impact on Arctic terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Many of the adaptations that Arctic plant and animal species have acquired to survive the harsh conditions also limit their ability to respond to warmer climates and other environmental changes.

Some species, such as grizzly bears, have started moving northward and showing up in areas usually occupied by polar bears and Arctic foxes. But other species, like whales, seals or polar bears, may not adapt quickly enough to the changing conditions.

Wetlands make up about 11 percent of the terrestrial surface of the Arctic. They are the summer homes of millions of migratory birds, including the common eider that breeds in the Arctic and winters in more temperate zones. But wetlands – and other freshwater ecosystems – are vulnerable to warmer temperatures, changes in precipitation and thawing permafrost. Ponds and lakes can disappear if the permafrost beneath them thaws.

The ocean occupies nearly two-thirds of the Arctic territory. The sea ice provides important habitat for seals, walruses and polar bears on top of the ice, and for plankton production and plankton-eating fish that live beneath the ice.

The marine ecosystem supplies food – fish and marine mammals – to northern coastal residents. But accelerated climate change is also releasing environmental contaminants, such as mercury, from permafrost zones into the marine environment, where they accumulate in food webs. Arctic communities are vulnerable to the effects of these toxins because they consume a lot of fish and marine mammals.

It’s always important to bring these impacts back to humans. Not that humans are going to do anything about it in any case.