Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway.
The Arctic is warming more rapidly than other region on the planet, and the northern Barents Sea, including the Svalbard Archipelago, is experiencing the fastest temperature increases within the circumpolar Arctic, along with the highest rate of sea ice loss. These physical changes are affecting a b...
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ftdatacite:10.25607/obp-895 2023-05-15T14:28:46+02:00 Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. Descamps, Sébastien Aars, Jon Fuglei, Eva Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Pavlova, Olga Pedersen, Åshild Ø. Ravolainen, Virve Strøm, Hallvard 2016 pp.490-502 https://dx.doi.org/10.25607/obp-895 https://repository.oceanbestpractices.org/handle/11329/1389 en eng UNESCO/IOC Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode cc-by-nc-nd-4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND CreativeWork article 2016 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.25607/obp-895 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z The Arctic is warming more rapidly than other region on the planet, and the northern Barents Sea, including the Svalbard Archipelago, is experiencing the fastest temperature increases within the circumpolar Arctic, along with the highest rate of sea ice loss. These physical changes are affecting a broad array of resident Arctic organisms as well as some migrants that occupy the region seasonally. Herein, evidence of climate change impacts on terrestrial and marine wildlife in Svalbard is reviewed, with a focus on bird and mammal species. In the terrestrial ecosystem, increased winter air temperatures and concomitant increases in the frequency of ‘rain-on-snow’ events are one of the most important facets of climate change with respect to impacts on flora and fauna. Winter rain creates ice that blocks access to food for herbivores and synchronizes the population dynamics of the herbivore–predator guild. In the marine ecosystem, increases in sea temperature and reductions in sea ice are influencing the entire food web. These changes are affecting the foraging and breeding ecology of most marine birds and mammals and are associated with an increase in abundance of several temperate fish, seabird and marine mammal species. Our review indicates that even though a few species are benefiting from a warming climate, most Arctic endemic species in Svalbard are experiencing negative consequences induced by the warming environment. Our review emphasizes the tight relationships between the marine and terrestrial ecosystems in this High Arctic archipelago. Detecting changes in trophic relationships within and between these ecosystems requires long-term (multidecadal) demographic, population- and ecosystem- based monitoring, the results of which are necessary to set appropriate conservation priorities in relation to climate warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Barents Sea Climate change Sea ice Svalbard DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Svalbard Archipelago Norway |
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Open Polar |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
English |
description |
The Arctic is warming more rapidly than other region on the planet, and the northern Barents Sea, including the Svalbard Archipelago, is experiencing the fastest temperature increases within the circumpolar Arctic, along with the highest rate of sea ice loss. These physical changes are affecting a broad array of resident Arctic organisms as well as some migrants that occupy the region seasonally. Herein, evidence of climate change impacts on terrestrial and marine wildlife in Svalbard is reviewed, with a focus on bird and mammal species. In the terrestrial ecosystem, increased winter air temperatures and concomitant increases in the frequency of ‘rain-on-snow’ events are one of the most important facets of climate change with respect to impacts on flora and fauna. Winter rain creates ice that blocks access to food for herbivores and synchronizes the population dynamics of the herbivore–predator guild. In the marine ecosystem, increases in sea temperature and reductions in sea ice are influencing the entire food web. These changes are affecting the foraging and breeding ecology of most marine birds and mammals and are associated with an increase in abundance of several temperate fish, seabird and marine mammal species. Our review indicates that even though a few species are benefiting from a warming climate, most Arctic endemic species in Svalbard are experiencing negative consequences induced by the warming environment. Our review emphasizes the tight relationships between the marine and terrestrial ecosystems in this High Arctic archipelago. Detecting changes in trophic relationships within and between these ecosystems requires long-term (multidecadal) demographic, population- and ecosystem- based monitoring, the results of which are necessary to set appropriate conservation priorities in relation to climate warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Descamps, Sébastien Aars, Jon Fuglei, Eva Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Pavlova, Olga Pedersen, Åshild Ø. Ravolainen, Virve Strøm, Hallvard |
spellingShingle |
Descamps, Sébastien Aars, Jon Fuglei, Eva Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Pavlova, Olga Pedersen, Åshild Ø. Ravolainen, Virve Strøm, Hallvard Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. |
author_facet |
Descamps, Sébastien Aars, Jon Fuglei, Eva Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Pavlova, Olga Pedersen, Åshild Ø. Ravolainen, Virve Strøm, Hallvard |
author_sort |
Descamps, Sébastien |
title |
Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. |
title_short |
Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. |
title_full |
Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. |
title_fullStr |
Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway. |
title_sort |
climate change impacts on wildlife in a high arctic archipelago – svalbard, norway. |
publisher |
UNESCO/IOC |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.25607/obp-895 https://repository.oceanbestpractices.org/handle/11329/1389 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Svalbard Archipelago Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Svalbard Archipelago Norway |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Barents Sea Climate change Sea ice Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Barents Sea Climate change Sea ice Svalbard |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode cc-by-nc-nd-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25607/obp-895 |
_version_ |
1766302925106184192 |