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Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator

In the Arctic Ocean’s southern Beaufort Sea (SB), the length of the sea ice melt season (i.e., period between the onset of sea ice break-up in summer and freeze-up in fall) has increased substantially since the late 1990s. Historically, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the SB have mostly remained on...

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Autores principales: Atwood, Todd C., Peacock, Elizabeth, McKinney, Melissa A., Lillie, Kate, Wilson, Ryan, Douglas, David C., Miller, Susanne, Terletzky, Pat
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4889047/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27249673
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155932
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author Atwood, Todd C.
Peacock, Elizabeth
McKinney, Melissa A.
Lillie, Kate
Wilson, Ryan
Douglas, David C.
Miller, Susanne
Terletzky, Pat
author_facet Atwood, Todd C.
Peacock, Elizabeth
McKinney, Melissa A.
Lillie, Kate
Wilson, Ryan
Douglas, David C.
Miller, Susanne
Terletzky, Pat
author_sort Atwood, Todd C.
collection PubMed
description In the Arctic Ocean’s southern Beaufort Sea (SB), the length of the sea ice melt season (i.e., period between the onset of sea ice break-up in summer and freeze-up in fall) has increased substantially since the late 1990s. Historically, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the SB have mostly remained on the sea ice year-round (except for those that came ashore to den), but recent changes in the extent and phenology of sea ice habitat have coincided with evidence that use of terrestrial habitat is increasing. We characterized the spatial behavior of polar bears spending summer and fall on land along Alaska’s north coast to better understand the nexus between rapid environmental change and increased use of terrestrial habitat. We found that the percentage of radiocollared adult females from the SB subpopulation coming ashore has tripled over 15 years. Moreover, we detected trends of earlier arrival on shore, increased length of stay, and later departure back to sea ice, all of which were related to declines in the availability of sea ice habitat over the continental shelf and changes to sea ice phenology. Since the late 1990s, the mean duration of the open-water season in the SB increased by 36 days, and the mean length of stay on shore increased by 31 days. While on shore, the distribution of polar bears was influenced by the availability of scavenge subsidies in the form of subsistence-harvested bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) remains aggregated at sites along the coast. The declining spatio-temporal availability of sea ice habitat and increased availability of human-provisioned resources are likely to result in increased use of land. Increased residency on land is cause for concern given that, while there, bears may be exposed to a greater array of risk factors including those associated with increased human activities.
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spelling pubmed-48890472016-06-10 Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator Atwood, Todd C. Peacock, Elizabeth McKinney, Melissa A. Lillie, Kate Wilson, Ryan Douglas, David C. Miller, Susanne Terletzky, Pat PLoS One Research Article In the Arctic Ocean’s southern Beaufort Sea (SB), the length of the sea ice melt season (i.e., period between the onset of sea ice break-up in summer and freeze-up in fall) has increased substantially since the late 1990s. Historically, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the SB have mostly remained on the sea ice year-round (except for those that came ashore to den), but recent changes in the extent and phenology of sea ice habitat have coincided with evidence that use of terrestrial habitat is increasing. We characterized the spatial behavior of polar bears spending summer and fall on land along Alaska’s north coast to better understand the nexus between rapid environmental change and increased use of terrestrial habitat. We found that the percentage of radiocollared adult females from the SB subpopulation coming ashore has tripled over 15 years. Moreover, we detected trends of earlier arrival on shore, increased length of stay, and later departure back to sea ice, all of which were related to declines in the availability of sea ice habitat over the continental shelf and changes to sea ice phenology. Since the late 1990s, the mean duration of the open-water season in the SB increased by 36 days, and the mean length of stay on shore increased by 31 days. While on shore, the distribution of polar bears was influenced by the availability of scavenge subsidies in the form of subsistence-harvested bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) remains aggregated at sites along the coast. The declining spatio-temporal availability of sea ice habitat and increased availability of human-provisioned resources are likely to result in increased use of land. Increased residency on land is cause for concern given that, while there, bears may be exposed to a greater array of risk factors including those associated with increased human activities. Public Library of Science 2016-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4889047/ /pubmed/27249673 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155932 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Atwood, Todd C.
Peacock, Elizabeth
McKinney, Melissa A.
Lillie, Kate
Wilson, Ryan
Douglas, David C.
Miller, Susanne
Terletzky, Pat
Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator
title Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator
title_full Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator
title_fullStr Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator
title_full_unstemmed Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator
title_short Rapid Environmental Change Drives Increased Land Use by an Arctic Marine Predator
title_sort rapid environmental change drives increased land use by an arctic marine predator
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4889047/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27249673
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155932
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