“Develop measures for the conservation of species”: a Russian scientist on the impact of global warming on the life of the Arctic fauna

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“The melting of the Arctic ice is a very likely outcome.

However, to agree or disagree with such a point of view, to put forward clear scenarios, to give them justification - this is the task of climatologists.

I respect the high professionalism and opinion of some climate scientists who believe that the Arctic will be covered with ice only in the winter season.

They assume that the movement towards such a situation with ice will occur gradually, and the Arctic will completely lose year-round ice cover at the end of the 21st century.

No one can tell the exact time yet.

As they say, wait and see.

Some species that have obligate (mandatory inherent in them. -

) vital connections with ice may disappear altogether, but those species that are associated with mainland land in their life cycle should be preserved.

The fact is that we do not know how the tundra itself can change over time.

Undoubtedly, nature will cope with global warming and get out of any situation.

It always gets out of any situation, nature has many different evolutionary scenarios.

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This point of view has been repeatedly expressed by many scientists.

While this is only a hypothesis, it is not definitively proven and many scientists reject it.

I don't think that climate change, even the scenario we talked about, will lead to the extinction of the polar bear as a species.

• Gettyimages.ru

• © Mlenny

Firstly, at present, polar bears living on Wrangel Island, in Taimyr and in other regions of the Arctic are doing quite well.

Animals that fall into the field of view of scientists on the mainland enter the tundra and are in a good state of life. 

In the Holocene (calendar era, the reckoning of which begins in 10,000 BC - 

) bears survived the period of the so-called Holocene warming and have survived to this day without loss.

Secondly, even if we assume that mass melting of ice in the Arctic begins, then this situation will only be in spring and summer, and in winter the ice cover will recover again.

The polar bear still has solid ecological ties with the mainland tundra: she-bears equip dens on the islands and in the mainland arctic tundra.

Everyone knows the "maternity hospitals" of polar bears on Wrangel Island, the coast of Taimyr and Chukotka.

In addition to the main food objects - seals, fish, young walruses and other marine products - the polar bear willingly eats lemmings, tundra berries, reindeer, musk oxen, carrion, seaweed.

In winter, polar bears concentrate in the tundra at the mouths of large northern rivers, where there is an increased density of seals in winter.

All this suggests that the species has an "alternate airfield".

There are species that should worry scientists much more than the polar bear.

For example, walrus.

It needs shallow water where it gets food.

And on the ice floes the animal is resting.

And if the ice in the Arctic melts in the summer, the species will be endangered.

It does not have a close relationship with the mainland.

• Walrus

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• © Paul Souders

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— There is no threat of extinction of lemmings.

Several species of lemmings live in the tundra of Eurasia.

Thus, the Norwegian lemming lives in the mountainous Scandinavian-Kola tundras, the Siberian lemming lives in the swampy Eurasian tundras, the ungulate lemming (in which special “hooves” grow on the second and third fingers by winter to make vents in the snow) lives in relatively dry habitats.

It is impossible not to mention the forest lemmings that live in the taiga.

And all these species have different ecological niches.

They are widely distributed throughout the tundra zone from the arctic tundra to the forest tundra.

Under any of the currently proposed scenarios, lemmings are not threatened with extinction.

Exploring the adaptations of lemmings to the conditions of existence, we can only wonder how nature is a great creator, which adapts species to the most extreme environment.

• norwegian lemming

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• © Marek Stefunko / EyeEm

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— The Arctic still has a relatively clean environment.

However, the Arctic is inextricably linked to the rest of the world, and pollutants come from sources both very near and far beyond.

Toxic rivers flow into the Arctic, polluting the Arctic waters.

In particular, we can recall the situation of 2020 - the diesel fuel spill in Norilsk.

Then more than 20,000 tons of diesel fuel leaked into the Arctic Ocean from a large industrial complex of Norilsk Nickel.

Rivers bring a huge amount of plastic and other garbage to the seas.

On Wrangel Island, for example, reserve staff and volunteers annually collect huge amounts of plastic from the ocean.

But still, huge volumes of it remain in the ocean.

We must not forget about the many tons of other garbage thrown into the ocean.

All this is the result of the activity of a person who does not deny himself anything and does not think about the consequences of his behavior.

The environment and man himself, as a species, suffers from this and is in danger.

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- The fact that hybrids will appear en masse is an unfounded fear.

Hybrids most often appear in zoos.

At the end of the 19th century, hybrids of polar and brown bears first appeared at the Stuttgart Zoo in Germany.

Then a male white and a female brown bear lived in the same enclosure, and they gave birth.

Yes, the appearance of hybrids tells us that these bears are not so genetically distant from each other and they are quite close relatives.

However, this German example and the Canadian one are isolated cases.

There can be no mass appearance of hybrids. 

• A hybrid of a white and brown bear at the Osnabrück Zoo (Germany)

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• © Friso Gentsch / picture alliance

— How will global warming and the scenario assumed by climate scientists affect

- If the ice cover remains in the Arctic only in winter, and completely melts in summer, there will be shifts in the zonal structure of the continents.

All southern zones and subzones will very, very slowly, gradually move closer to the north.

For example, forest-tundra ecosystems will gradually shift to the north, and the northern taiga will form in their place.

However, what will happen to the northern Arctic continental and island tundra is a big question.

They are on the outskirts of the mainland and can be flooded.

Such scenarios can be considered, and decisions on the conservation of species and ecosystems should be made by scientists from different countries.

Only by joint efforts will we be able to develop measures for the conservation of endangered species.

But every person should think about his daily ecological behavior, about the ecological footprint left on the Earth.