SciencePoles news
Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.
-
Study of Anaktuvuk River Fire Highlights Major Impacts of Tundra Fires on Carbon Storage
31.07.2011
In 2007, the Anaktuvuk River Fire in Alaska – the largest ever recorded tundra fire in the Arctic – burned 1039 km² and released over 2.3 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. A study of the region affected by the fire conducted by resarchers at the University of Alaska…
-
Ability to Change Diet Helped Gray Whales Get through Ice Ages
29.07.2011
Pacific gray whales may have been able to survive throughout multiple ice ages over millions of years thanks to a diversified diet, scientists explained in a study published in the online journal PLoS ONE.
-
Climate Change a Factor in the Hybridization of Polar and Brown Bears
14.07.2011
New DNA evidence suggests that polar bears and brown bears have been hybridizing during the last 100000 years, according to research published in the journal Current Biology. The research, conducted by Beth Shapiro of Penn State University and Daniel Bradley of Trinity College Dublin, indicates that hybridization seems to take…
-
Antarctic Krill’s Key Role in Iron Fertilization in Southern Ocean
07.07.2011
An international team of researchers recently published findings in the journal Limnology and Oceanography showing that Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) – a shrimp-like creature at the core of the Antarctic food web – could play a key role in fertilising the Southern Ocean with iron. Iron is a micronutrient that…
-
Pollen Study Helps Scientists Understand Antarctic Climate History
30.06.2011
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the last traces of vegetation in Antarctica might have existed in a tundra landscape until about 12 million years ago. The study features the most detailed reconstruction of the climate history of the Antarctic Peninsula to…
-
Melting Sea Ice Leading to Atlantic Migration of Pacific Species
30.06.2011
Observations such as that of a 13-metre grey whale off the Israeli town of Herzliya last year have led scientists to believe that Arctic species may have begun migrating out of the Arctic via the Northwest Passage. Scientists have also observed that plankton that had previously only been found in…
-
Beaufort Sea Polar Bears’ Limited Diet Puts them at Risk
24.06.2011
In a paper published in Ecological Monographs, a team of scientists suggests that polar bears’ exclusive diets are making the species more vulnerable to the consequences of dwindling sea ice in the Arctic. The team, which has been collecting fat samples from Polar Bears throughout the Canadian Arctic, succeeded in…
-
Dogs Identify Human Activities as Stressors to Caribou in Canada
24.06.2011
A report published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment shows how specially-trained dogs identified human activities as a threat to caribou survival in Alberta, Canada. While wildlife biologists would have normally equipped the caribou with radio-collars to track their movements and count their number, this study relied on four…
-
Snow Cover in the Arctic Spur Killer Fungus’ Growth
20.06.2011
The results of new research, recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggest that prolonged snowfall in the Arctic can spur fungal growth that can kill the plants in the region. For the first time, scientists were able to show the possible long-term effects of unexpected fungal development in…
-
Transformation of Body Oil Allows Copepods to Hibernate at Great Depths
16.06.2011
In a study published recently in the journal Limnology and Oceanography, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and the Natural Environment Research Council found that copepods - 3mm-long marine crustaceans - use the same buoyancy control mechanisms in the ocean as whales do.
