�㽶��Ƶ News - Arctic

Seabirds & their vulnerability to a warming climate: Q&A with researcher Emily Choy

webfull — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:21:21 +0000

A study released this month found that as the climate changes in the North, some cold-adapted arctic birds are especially susceptible to heat stress.

Published: 3 August 2021

Arctic seabirds are less heat tolerant, more vulnerable to climate change

webfull — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 14:00:49 +0000

The Arctic is warming at approximately twice the global rate. A new study led by researchers from �㽶��Ƶ finds that cold-adapted Arctic species, like the thick-billed murre, are especially vulnerable to heat stress caused by climate change.

“We discovered that murres have the lowest cooling efficiency ever reported in birds, which means they have an extremely poor ability to dissipate or lose heat,” says lead author Emily Choy, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Natural Resource Sciences Department at �㽶��Ƶ.

Published: 7 July 2021

Narwal tusks reveal mercury exposure related to climate change

webfull — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:38:52 +0000

“Our research shows that climate change is having substantial impacts on Arctic ecosystems, with consequences for exposure to toxic pollutants like mercury,” says co-author Jean-Pierre Desforges, a Postdoctoral Fellow [NRS] at �㽶��Ƶ under the supervision of Nil Basu [NRS/SHN] and Melissa McKinney [NRS].

McGill Newsroom

Published: 31 March 2021

Narwhal tusks reveal mercury exposure related to climate change

webfull — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:20:29 +0000

In the Arctic, climate change and pollution are the biggest threats to top predators like narwhals. Studying the animals’ tusks reveals that diet and exposure to pollution have shifted over the past half century in response to sea-ice decline. Human emissions have also led to a sharp rise in the presence of mercury in recent years, according to an international team of researchers.

Published: 29 March 2021

Arctic Researcher wins prestigious 2020 L’Oréal Canada For Women in Science Research Excellence Fellowship

webfull — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 20:10:09 +0000

Emily Choy [Post Doctoral Fellow, NRS. Advisor : Kyle Elliott] became hooked on the Arctic when, as a Master’s student, she jumped on a research opportunity to study the effects of manmade contaminants on High Arctic food webs on Devon Island, Nunavut. “When I experienced how out of the world it was and observed the wildlife that are so highly adapted to the Arctic environment, I just fell in love,” says Choy.

Published: 25 November 2020

Ecological insights from three decades of animal movement tracking across a changing Arctic

webfull — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 16:08:23 +0000

[Natural Resource Sciences professor Kyle Elliott, Canada Research Chair in Arctic Ecology, and grad students Allison Patterson and Don-Jean Leandri-Breton are co-authors on this study]

Published: 8 November 2020

USA TODAY | Arctic will see ice-free summers by 2050 as globe warms, study says

webfull — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:21:54 +0000

The Arctic Ocean will be ice-free in the summer within the next 30 years, a study says, which will result in "devastating consequences for the Arctic ecosystem," according to �㽶��Ƶ in Montreal. Sea ice is frozen ocean water that melts each summer, then refreezes each winter. The amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic has been steadily shrinking over the past few decades because of global warming. Since satellite records began in 1979, summer Arctic ice has lost 40% of its area and up to 70% of its volume, the Guardian said.

Published: 23 April 2020

North pole will be ice-free in summer

webfull — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:36:08 +0000

Summer Arctic sea-ice is predicted to disappear before 2050, resulting in devastating consequences for the Arctic ecosystem. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These are the results of a new study involving 21 research institutes from around the world, including �㽶��Ƶ.

Published: 21 April 2020

New technique for measuring greenhouse gas production from thawing permafrost

webfull — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:33:38 +0000

A research team led by �㽶��Ƶ geochemist Peter Douglas has used a new method for measuring the rate at which methane is produced by microbes breaking down thawing permafrost. “There is a lot of concern about methane being released from permafrost, but we don’t know how available carbon that has been frozen for thousands of years is to microbes,” says Douglas, an assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Published: 26 March 2020

Increasingly mobile sea ice risks polluting Arctic neighbours

webfull — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 16:56:15 +0000

The movement of sea ice between Arctic countries is expected to significantly increase this century, raising the risk of more widely transporting pollutants like microplastics and oil between neighbouring coastal states, according to new research from �㽶��Ƶ in collaboration with University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, and Arizona State University.

Published: 19 March 2020