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Title: Widespread Arctic Wildlife Changes Seen with Global Warming
Source:
VOANews
URL Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-11-voa1.cfm
Published: Sep 11, 2009
Author: Jessica Berman
Post Date: 2009-09-12 16:01:09 by buckeroo
Keywords: None
Views: 462
Comments: 47
Scientists carying out studies of wildlife in the Arctic say global warming is causing dramatic changes in animal and plant life, threatening some species with extinction. The report is a compilation of studies of Arctic eco-systems by an international team of scientists who have been collaborating during the fourth International Polar Year,which ended in 2008. Eric Post, a professor of biology at Penn State University and leader of the study team, says previous research has focused on the non-living or abiotic effects of global warming on the Arctic, including the melting of sea ice and subsequent rises in seawater levels. But Post says this is the first comprehensive report investigating the sweeping impacts of climate change on eco-systems and living creatures in the north polar region, including: "Fresh water systems, terrestrial systems, resident species, migratory species, birds, mammals, plants, pretty much everything. It seems like wherever you look in the Arctic right now, things are changing quite rapidly," he said. For example, Post says, the researchers found that red foxes and other species that thrived in the Arctic's southern ranges are moving north toward cooler, more hospitable climates. They are displacing Arctic foxes in competition for food. Other species migrating northward include winter moths that are defoliating mountain birch forests. Another biological consequence of climate change in the Arctic, according to Post, is that the plant growing season is starting earlier than it did a decade ago. "And that might sound like a benefit because it's getting warmer and greener earlier. But there are species that migrate based on light cues and are expecting to arrive on their breeding grounds in the Arctic to take advantage of resources associated with start of the growing season. But they are arriving too late now and are suffering consequences for reproduction and survival of offspring," he said. Species endangered by this earlier growing season include migratory caribou, common in the low Arctic landscape of Greenland. Increasing numbers of females there are unable to consume enough food to sustain pregnancies. Researchers did find species that benefitted from the warming temperatures, including non-migratory wild reindeer on the Norwegian archipelago. These animals take advantage of the melting snow and longer growing seasons. Scientists say reindeer populations have increased because there's more food for them to eat. The report notes that over the past 150 years, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has caused temperatures to warm an average of one-degree Celsius. That has resulted in a progressive loss of the Arctic's seasonal sea ice cover, at the rate of 45,000 square kilometers per year. Species that are hardest hit by the shrinking ice are polar bears, seals and walruses, all of which have experienced reductions in their populations. With temperatures expected to rise another six degrees Celsius by the end of the century, Post says polar bears, which now number between 20,000 and 25,000, face possible extinction. "Maybe within our lifetimes or the lifetime of our children, it seems like sea ice loss is happening so quickly that polar bear populations will become increasingly fragmented still. So, I think they are the ones that are at risk for extinction in the near future," he said. Post says there are still many unanswered questions about the effects of climate change in the frozen region, such as why some eco-systems are thriving while other are on the brink of collapse. Researchers hope future studies of Arctic biology will answer those questions. Their new report is published in this week's Science magazine.
Poster Comment:"The report notes that over the past 150 years, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has caused temperatures to warm an average of one-degree Celsius. That has resulted in a progressive loss of the Arctic's seasonal sea ice cover, at the rate of 45,000 square kilometers per year."
The issue about global warming is REAL. Some folks have dismissed the REAL issue entirely because of political flap-jaws, such as Al Gore.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9.
#1. To: buckeroo, *Agriculture-Environment* (#0)
No. People have dismissed it because the science doesn't back it up. The variations we have seen in climate are natural and constantly changing. This doom and gloom has got to go. We didn't even reach the level of medieval warm period and "nature" seemed to survive that just fine. We are already starting to cool. Couple that with the fact that despite the recent increases, CO2 is at historic lows for the planet. This is a manufactured crisis benefiting no one but the global elites.
I feel the heat rising already. Still, the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere is rising. As a recommendation and for the future, don't buy coats .... buy bikinis to cool off! :)
Even if that were true, which it isn't, so what? As I said, we have not reached the same heat as the medieval warm period. BTW, that is also called climate optimum. Why is that? What about the Roman warm period? Warming has not been bad for this planet in the past, why should it be bad now?
Heat is bad. It is bad, bad, bad to all life and certainly humans. We live in a small bandwidth of comfort and capability to survive based upon the natural envelope given to us. The influence of modern technologies and resulting convolution about the natural environment around us, needs serious considerations ... not cheap dismissals. Show me where the Earth is actually cooling.
I've sent you an email. You need to get some better science. For someone who understands issues surrounding government propaganda you seem blind in this area.
I suspect that you don't like my comments all of a sudden. Are you attempting to bitch-slap me based upon my free and confident scientific standing certainly concerned with CO2 emissions causing spindly plants reducing the food supply?
Climate and the Carboniferous Period Average global temperatures in the Early Carboniferous Period were hot- approximately 20° C (68° F). However, cooling during the Middle Carboniferous reduced average global temperatures to about 12° C (54° F). As shown on the chart below, this is comparable to the average global temperature on Earth today! Similarly, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Early Carboniferous Period were approximately 1500 ppm (parts per million), but by the Middle Carboniferous had declined to about 350 ppm -- comparable to average CO2 concentrations today!
Are you arguing that CO2 emissions make you healthy?
If you want to put it that way, yes. That's why we keep CO2 at higher levels in subs. People evolved at higher CO2 concentrations and thus really do better. The environment does better as well. Man only puts out about 3% CO2. The oceans are the big CO2 source. No amount of international regulation is going to change that.
#10. To: farmfriend (#9)
I want you to put down the whiskey jar and face up to facts..... CO2 emissions are bad for your health. But and since you seem to be in a robust mood to defend and argue your claims about how CO2 makes you healthy .... I want you to make sure that you spread the links right here. Lets start off with a CO2 mask in the hospital for some sick human. Those ugly, oxygen masks just aren't fashionable are they?
That's why we keep CO2 at higher levels in subs. People evolved at higher CO2 concentrations and thus really do better. Wrong, and wrong. In terms of CO2 being healthy, if you're a plant that's true, as plants require CO2 for their celluar functions. We however require oxygen, not CO2. They don't ADD CO2 on subs, they use scrubbers to REMOVE it. High CO2 levels would mean the sub would have to surface as people would start keeling over otherwise. The oceans are the big CO2 source. That is misleading. Althought SOME parts of the world's oceans release CO2 (as in the tropics), MOST of the oceans ABSORB CO2. It's a cycle that keeps everything in balance, where the ocean aborbs larger amounts of CO2 than it releases, thus absorbing excess CO2 from the rest of the environment.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe issue about global warming is REAL. Some folks have dismissed the REAL issue entirely because of political flap-jaws, such as Al Gore.
#2. To: farmfriend (#1)
#3. To: buckeroo (#2)
Still, the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere is rising.
#4. To: farmfriend (#3)
#5. To: buckeroo (#4)
#6. To: farmfriend (#5)
I've sent you an email. You need to get some better science. For someone who understands issues surrounding government propaganda you seem blind in this area.
#7. To: buckeroo, vitamin Z, *Agriculture-Environment* (#6)
Similarities with our Present World
#8. To: farmfriend (#7)
#9. To: buckeroo (#8)
(Edited)
Are you arguing that CO2 emissions make you healthy?
Replies to Comment # 9. If you want to put it that way, yes.
#11. To: farmfriend, buckeroo (#9)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 9.