Warming Arctic brings invasion of southern species

[Turborama]

Source: Yale Environment 360 Via The Guardian

Ed Struzik for http://e360.yale.edu/feature/arctic_roamers_the_move_of_southern_species_into_far_north/2370/">Yale Environment 360 | guardian.co.uk, Monday February 14 2011 15.49 GMT

=snip=

Up until about twenty years ago, sightings of grizzlies in the High Arctic were extremely rare; a quirk of nature, many biologists thought, that may have simply occurred because the bear ended up walking the wrong way or because it had strayed too far following mainland caribou that sometimes cross the sea ice to the Arctic islands. But that thinking began to change in recent years as more brown bears and a succession of other animals such as red fox, white-tailed deer, Pacific salmon, and killer whales began showing up in areas traditionally occupied by polar bears, Arctic fox, caribou, Arctic char, and beluga whales.

Most scientists now believe that climate change, which is warming the Arctic faster than any other place on Earth, is responsible for removing the barriers — long winters, bitterly cold temperatures, and thick, continent-size sheets of sea ice — that once stopped these southern animals from moving into the far north.

Initially, the fear was that some of these Arctic animals would not be able to compete with their southern cousins. Experimental studies have shown that Arctic fox do not fare well in competition with red fox, and anecdotal evidence from some Arctic regions — including a video from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay Oilfield showing a red fox killing an Arctic fox — suggests that this is the case in the wild. Killer whales moving into the Arctic from more southerly waters have eaten beluga whales and narwhal, as Inuit hunters have been reporting for years. In August 2005, several biologists from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans witnessed such an attack at Kakiak Point in Admiralty Inlet, Nunavut, Canada.

Now, the new concern is that interbreeding might result in hybrid creatures that will water down a unique gene pool that has helped Arctic animals adapt to this harsh environment.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/14/warming-arctic-southern-species

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This bear's body, neck and face suggest it may be a grizzly-polar bear
hybrid, or 'grolar', living in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.
Photograph: Steven Kazlowski/Corbis

[slackmaster]

1. Evolution. How does it work?

Now, the new concern is that interbreeding might result in hybrid creatures that will water down a unique gene pool that has helped Arctic animals adapt to this harsh environment.

That's one way.

Interesting topic. K&R.

:kick:

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Evolve or die.

I'm presently working on my methane-breathing apparatus. :)

[slackmaster]

3. The good news is that people will have to give up smoking once methane levels get high enough

Or risk blowing up the Earth.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. On one level that's good news ,

but what about those of us who indulge in the noble weed? Will we have to resort to brownies? Or will we even be able to bake in such a scenario? Certainly not in a gas oven.

Oh, the horror.

[slackmaster]

6. Vaporizers

;-)

[flor-de-jasmim]

4. I'm sure there's a good Mama Grizzly joke in here somewhere...