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.
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.
“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].
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.
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.
[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]
The Arctic Ocean will be ice-free in the summer within the next 30 years, astudy says, which will result in "devastating consequences for the Arctic ecosystem," according to㽶Ƶin 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, theGuardiansaid.
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.
A research team led by 㽶Ƶ geochemistPeter Douglashas 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.
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.
Two McGill researchers developing solutions to clean marine oil spills in the Northwest Passage and in oceans surrounding Canada to receive $3.7 million in funding from the Multi-Partner Research Initiative (MPRI).
Que nous dit le Grand Nord sur notre climat, présent et passé? Isabelle Burgun s’entretient avec deux chercheurs : Marianne Falardeau-Côté, candidate au doctorat au département des sciences des ressources naturelles à l'Université McGill. Elle avait précédemment voyagé sur l’Amundsen dans le cadre de sa maîtrise.
Shipping and mining in the Arctic. The spread of invasive microbial pathogens around the world. Changing agricultural practices. Use of genomic-modification tools. Those are among the 14 most significant issues that could affect the science and management of invasive species over the next two decades, according to an international team of ecologists, who published their findings in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
Congratulations to M.Sc. candidate Émile Brisson-Curadeau (Supervisor: Prof. Kyle Elliott, NRS) for capturing second place in "" competition contest for "".
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“Both the Arctic and Antarctic experienced record lows in sea ice extent in November, with scientists astonished to see Arctic ice actually retreating at a time when the region enters the cold darkness of winter.” ()()