Impacts of changing sea-ice conditions on Arctic marine mammals

Kovacs, Kit M.; Lydersen, Christian; Overland, James E.; Moore, Sue E.

doi:10.1007/s12526-010-0061-0

Cited by 358 publications

(368 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…Stomach samples are often found to include bivalves, gastropods, and polychaetes, although sipunculans are also among the frequent prey (Sheffield and Grebmeier 2009;Jay et al 2014). Walruses are highly dependent on the sea ice as resting platforms while foraging far from the shore (Kovacs et al 2011). Due to the recently observed reduction in the seasonal sea ice cover, walruses may have to change their preferred foraging sites and thus an increased foraging pressure on the preferred bivalve species may be expected (Jay et al 2011(Jay et al , 2012(Jay et al , 2014, potentially depleting local populations (Coyle et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sipunculan fauna in the Pacific Arctic region: a significant component of benthic infaunal communities

2017

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The Sipuncula show low species diversity in the Arctic Ocean, but they often occur in very high numbers and biomass, and can dominate shelf benthic communities. We describe here the patterns of sipunculan diversity, abundance, biomass, and species distribution in the Pacific Arctic, and the relation of those patterns to controlling environmental factors. Five species (including two subspecies) belonging to two families and three genera are known to be present in Pacific-influenced Arctic waters. Although sipunculans were found at only about 30% of sampled stations, they constituted, if present, up to about 10% of the total macrobenthic abundance, and over 80% of the total infaunal biomass, particularly in many locations in the Chukchi Sea. The mean sipunculan abundance was 24.5 ± 155.9 individuals m -2 , with a maximum of 1745 individuals m -2 . The mean sipunculan biomass was 14.0 ± 73.8 g wet weight m -2 , with a maximum of 698.7 g wet weight m -2 in the northwest Chukchi Sea. The sipunculan abundances and biomass observed were related to latitude, depth, and sediment characteristics. The populations observed should be considered significant and characteristic components of the Pacific Arctic shallow shelf systems and food webs. This conclusion proves to be true also for other Arctic shelf seas like the Barents Sea, and deep Arctic ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sipunculan fauna in the Pacific Arctic region: a significant component of benthic infaunal communities

2017

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“…3) or an increased number of freezeup and/or break-up events (Fig. 5) means there is less time for the snow cover to develop, pups are more exposed to predators due to inability to construct an adequate lair (Kovacs et al, 2011). Ringed seals can be hunted for subsistence whenever ice is accessible, either on landfast ice or among loose floes by boat (Gearheard, 2013), but the overall accessibility to subsistence hunters is reduced by the shortening of the ice-covered season.…”

Section: Changes In Timing Of Freeze-up and Break-up And Number Of Famentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bearded seals are also likely to be negatively impacted by an earlier break-up (Fig. 4), because they require stable seasonal ice late in the spring for raising pups and molting (Kovacs et al, 2011). Ideal hunting conditions consist of loose floes accessible by small boats.…”

Section: Changes In Timing Of Freeze-up and Break-up And Number Of Famentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of a lengthening open water season on Alaskan coastal communities: deriving locally relevant indices from large-scale datasets and community observations

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Using thresholds of physical climate variables developed from community observations, together with two large-scale datasets, we have produced local indices directly relevant to the impacts of a reduced sea ice cover on Alaska coastal communities. The indices include the number of "false freeze-ups" defined by transient exceedances of ice concentration prior to a corresponding exceedance that persists, "false break-ups", timing of freeze-up and break-up, length of the open water duration, number of days when the winds preclude hunting via boat (wind speed threshold exceedances), the number of wind events conducive to geomorphological work or damage to infrastructure from ocean waves, and the number of these wind events with onand along-shore components promoting water setup along the coastline. We demonstrate how community observations can inform use of large-scale datasets to derive these locally relevant indices.

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“…Many species of polar seabirds and marine mammals require sea-ice habitat for foraging, resting, and raising young (e.g., Moore and Huntington, 2008;Kovacs et al, 2011;Santora, 2014;Laidre et al, 2015;Delord et al, 2016). Ice floes provide refuge for seabirds and seals from their predators, such as killer whales and leopard seals (e.g., Visser et al, 2008;Durban, 2010, 2012).…”

Section: Impacts Of Advection On Sea-ice Habitat For Seabirds and Marmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advection in polar and sub-polar environments: Impacts on high latitude marine ecosystems

Hunt

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Arrigo

et al. 2016

Progress in Oceanography

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a b s t r a c tWe compare and contrast the ecological impacts of atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns on polar and sub-polar marine ecosystems. Circulation patterns differ strikingly between the north and south. Meridional circulation in the north provides connections between the sub-Arctic and Arctic despite the presence of encircling continental landmasses, whereas annular circulation patterns in the south tend to isolate Antarctic surface waters from those in the north. These differences influence fundamental aspects of the polar ecosystems from the amount, thickness and duration of sea ice, to the types of organisms, and the ecology of zooplankton, fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Meridional flows in both the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans transport heat, nutrients, and plankton northward into the Chukchi Sea, the Barents Sea, and the seas off the west coast of Greenland. In the North Atlantic, the advected heat warms the waters of the southern Barents Sea and, with advected nutrients and plankton, supports immense biomasses of fish, seabirds and marine mammals. On the Pacific side of the Arctic, cold waters flowing northward across the northern Bering and Chukchi seas during winter and spring limit the ability of boreal fish species to take advantage of high seasonal production there. Southward flow of cold Arctic waters into sub-Arctic regions of the North Atlantic occurs mainly through Fram Strait with less through the Barents Sea and the Canadian Archipelago. In the Pacific, the transport of Arctic waters and plankton southward through Bering Strait is minimal.In the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and its associated fronts are barriers to the southward dispersal of plankton and pelagic fishes from sub-Antarctic waters, with the consequent evolution of Antarctic zooplankton and fish species largely occurring in isolation from those to the north. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current also disperses biota throughout the Southern Ocean, and as a result, the biota tends to be similar within a given broad latitudinal band. South of the Southern Boundary of the ACC, there is a large-scale divergence that brings nutrient-rich water to the surface. This divergence, along with more localized upwelling regions and deep vertical convection in winter, generates elevated nutrient levels throughout the Antarctic at the end of austral winter. However, such elevated nutrient levels do not support elevated phytoplankton productivity through the entire Southern Ocean, as iron concentrations are rapidly removed to limiting levels by spring blooms in deep waters. However, coastal http://dx

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Impacts of changing sea-ice conditions on Arctic marine mammals

Cited by 358 publications

References 132 publications

Sipunculan fauna in the Pacific Arctic region: a significant component of benthic infaunal communities

Sipunculan fauna in the Pacific Arctic region: a significant component of benthic infaunal communities

Impacts of a lengthening open water season on Alaskan coastal communities: deriving locally relevant indices from large-scale datasets and community observations

Advection in polar and sub-polar environments: Impacts on high latitude marine ecosystems

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