RIPPLE MARKS—The Story Behind the Story

Last of the Ice Bears? Climate Change Threatens Iconic Polar Bears’ Food Sources In 1773, King George III of England appointed naval officer Constantine John Phipps to command an Arctic expedition. Phipps was dispatched to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, on the ice fields near Sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oceanography
Main Author: Cheryl Lyn Dybas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Oceanography Society 2015
Subjects:
polar bears
climate change
Oceanography
GC1-1581
Arctic
Norway
Pacific
Svalbard
Climate change
Sea ice
Ursus maritimus
Spitsbergen
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2015.22
https://doaj.org/article/9fb16108863b4042b6a513e4ed8374e7
Description
Summary:Last of the Ice Bears? Climate Change Threatens Iconic Polar Bears’ Food Sources In 1773, King George III of England appointed naval officer Constantine John Phipps to command an Arctic expedition. Phipps was dispatched to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, on the ice fields near Spitsbergen (now Svalbard), Norway, he found polar bears. The explorer was the first to describe the bears as a distinct species, Ursus maritimus. Were he to undertake the journey today, Phipps would spot polar bears not on sea ice, but wandering along rocky shorelines, searching for frozen water.

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