Whales forced to adapt to climate change and changing oceans

As many know, climate change can have an effect on how polar bears thrive on the Arctic ice in a negative manner. But surely, polar bears can't be the only animals that are affected, which is proven by the beluga whales that live near the Arctic. Studies from the University of Washington show that the whales are forced to dive deeper into waters to look for prey during the summers in the Arctic. The researchers tracked the Chukchi sea beluga population during two different periods of times. One period of time was from 1993-2002, which was called the early stage. The other period was from 2004-2012, which was called the late stage. The sea ice loss was also documented and they had found that the ice cover had declined overtime. The results found that the whales were traveling 50m deeper into the sea in the late stage than the early stage. The belugas were also diving for food three times per day in the late stages compared to the once-per-day diving in the early stage. This may be due to the changing habits of other animals that whales feed on, which may be an effect from the changing climate and oceans. 


What this means for the whales may not actually mean much. If anything, this change may be actually better for whales that are looking for food. Whales are very general when looking for food, and it widens their options of foraging. However, it is still unclear how positive or negative this affect is on whales. But this does show that there is an effect on animal wildlife from climate change. This is proven from the fact that whales are trying to adapt to the changing climate, and whales are surely not the only animals that are affected. It may not support the fact that there is a negative impact on whales or animals in general, but it does show that animals are being affected by the changing environment around them, which includes the changing oceans. It also proves the rapid effect of climate change that is happening around the world. This study had shown a change that had happened over a span of 20 years, and it says a lot on how fast the Earth is changing and how much of an impact there is from this. 

**LINK TO ARTICLE** : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180220161216.htm

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 5, 2018 at 10:37 AM

    The Good: I found it very interesting to how climate change is affecting whales
    The Bad: It was hard to understand the topic on my first reading
    The Ugly: It's effect not affect.
    & The Question: How is climate change affecting penguins?
    -Al

    ReplyDelete

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