High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern
Abstract Some animal species are responding to climate change by altering the timing of events like mating and migration. Such behavioral plasticity can be adaptive, but it is not always. Polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) from the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation have mostly remained on ice year‐ro...
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crwiley:10.1002/ecs2.4420 2024-06-23T07:50:38+00:00 High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern Kellner, Annie Atwood, Todd C. Douglas, David C. Breck, Stewart W. Wittemyer, George National Science Foundation American Association of University Women U.S. Bureau of Land Management Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4420 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.4420 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ecs2.4420 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.4420 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecosphere volume 14, issue 2 ISSN 2150-8925 2150-8925 journal-article 2023 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4420 2024-06-04T06:35:38Z Abstract Some animal species are responding to climate change by altering the timing of events like mating and migration. Such behavioral plasticity can be adaptive, but it is not always. Polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) from the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation have mostly remained on ice year‐round, but as the climate warms and summer sea ice declines, a growing proportion of the subpopulation is summering ashore. The triggers of this novel behavior are not well understood. Our study uses a parametric time‐to‐event model to test whether biological and/or time‐varying environmental variables thought to influence polar bear movement and habitat selection also drive decisions to swim ashore. We quantified the time polar bears spent occupying offshore sea ice of varying ice concentrations. We evaluated variations in the ordinal date bears moved to land with respect to local environmental conditions such as sea ice concentration and wind across 10 years (2005–2015). Results from our study suggest that storm events (i.e., sustained high wind speeds) may force polar bears from severely degraded ice habitat and catalyze seasonal movements to land. Unlike polar bears long adapted to complete summer ice melt, southern Beaufort Sea bears that summer ashore appear more tolerant of poor‐quality sea ice habitat and are less willing to abandon it. Our findings provide a window into emergent, climatically mediated behavior in an Arctic marine mammal vulnerable to rapid habitat decline. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Beaufort Sea Climate change polar bear Sea ice Ursus maritimus Wiley Online Library Arctic Ecosphere 14 2 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Some animal species are responding to climate change by altering the timing of events like mating and migration. Such behavioral plasticity can be adaptive, but it is not always. Polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) from the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation have mostly remained on ice year‐round, but as the climate warms and summer sea ice declines, a growing proportion of the subpopulation is summering ashore. The triggers of this novel behavior are not well understood. Our study uses a parametric time‐to‐event model to test whether biological and/or time‐varying environmental variables thought to influence polar bear movement and habitat selection also drive decisions to swim ashore. We quantified the time polar bears spent occupying offshore sea ice of varying ice concentrations. We evaluated variations in the ordinal date bears moved to land with respect to local environmental conditions such as sea ice concentration and wind across 10 years (2005–2015). Results from our study suggest that storm events (i.e., sustained high wind speeds) may force polar bears from severely degraded ice habitat and catalyze seasonal movements to land. Unlike polar bears long adapted to complete summer ice melt, southern Beaufort Sea bears that summer ashore appear more tolerant of poor‐quality sea ice habitat and are less willing to abandon it. Our findings provide a window into emergent, climatically mediated behavior in an Arctic marine mammal vulnerable to rapid habitat decline. |
author2 |
National Science Foundation American Association of University Women U.S. Bureau of Land Management Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kellner, Annie Atwood, Todd C. Douglas, David C. Breck, Stewart W. Wittemyer, George |
spellingShingle |
Kellner, Annie Atwood, Todd C. Douglas, David C. Breck, Stewart W. Wittemyer, George High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
author_facet |
Kellner, Annie Atwood, Todd C. Douglas, David C. Breck, Stewart W. Wittemyer, George |
author_sort |
Kellner, Annie |
title |
High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
title_short |
High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
title_full |
High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
title_fullStr |
High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
title_full_unstemmed |
High winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
title_sort |
high winds and melting sea ice trigger landward movement in a polar bear population of concern |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4420 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.4420 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ecs2.4420 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.4420 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Climate change polar bear Sea ice Ursus maritimus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Climate change polar bear Sea ice Ursus maritimus |
op_source |
Ecosphere volume 14, issue 2 ISSN 2150-8925 2150-8925 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4420 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1802641539291152384 |