Statement of authorship: † SJ and JG contributed equally to the study. SJ designed the study, SJ, 10JG and LD developed the model, SJ, JG, FP performed modeling work and analyzed output data. JG 11 and FP performed the theoretical mathematical analysis, SJ and JG wrote the manuscript, and all authors 12 contributed to revisions. 45When the population decline is driven by climate changes that exceed species' tolerance 46 or when acclimation and adaptation are insufficient to allow species persistence in a partic-47 ular location (Visser, 2008), species' dispersal capabilities could be the key for persistence 48 (Travis et al., 2012;Ponchon et al., 2015). Here, we study whether dispersal will act as an 49 ecological rescue mechanism to reverse the global population decline of species endangered by 50 climate change. We distinguish this ecological rescue from the local population rescue effect 51 in source-sink dynamic models (Hanski, 1982). Here, ecological rescue focuses on species 52 persistence, i.e. global population viability. local and global population declines are projected by the end of the century if sea ice con-58 centration (SIC) decreases at the rates projected by climate models (Jenouvrier et al., 2012, 59 2014). EPs depend on sea ice to breed, feed, and molt , and there is 60 an optimal amount of sea ice for population growth (Jenouvrier et al., 2012). Because sea 61 ice is projected to decline at geographically heterogeneous rates, some habitats will be more