Each year from early May to late June, researchers looked daily for the first signs of growth in plots enclosing individual plant species. "When we started studying this, I never would have imagined we'd be talking about a 26-day per decade rate of advance," said lead author Eric Post, a polar ecologist in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology who has been studying the Arctic for 27 years. While how early a plant emerges from its winter slumber depends on the species, the study demonstrates that the Arctic landscape is changing rapidly. Caribou come to the study site each year during calving season to take advantage of the nutritious plants needed to recover from winter and provide for their newborns. But as the emergence of plant species in spring has shifted, the caribou internal clock, driven by seasonal changes in day length, has not kept up. "That's one example of the consequences of this for consumer species like caribou, who have a limited window to build up resources before going into the next winter," Post said. "With the most recent study, we're taking a step toward understanding how extensive and cryptic the effects of sea ice loss might be in the Arctic." As a result, fewer calves are born and more die early in years when spring plant growth outpaces the caribou calving season.
This article identified the changes happening in nature and how it could affect our ecosystems. Spring is coming sooner to some plant species in the low Arctic of Greenland, while other species are delaying their emergence amid warming winters. The changes are associated with diminishing sea ice cover, according to a study. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170223134408.htm
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May 2017
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