Going through through some data coming from the Barents Sea polar bear subpopulation. The Barents Sea has been hit for the last 30 years with steady declines in sea ice. It was presumed that the polar bears there would be suffering greatly due to the lack of sea ice. The last survey was 2004 and Norwegian Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen released some more current preliminary data which shows that things arent so doom and gloom up there. Yes, there is has been a steady decline in sea ice in the area which has effect on where female bears will den. How much of an effect did this have on body condition and other health indicators? Well, there was a statistically significant decline in the number of new cubs over time but theres also a huge variation from year to year. However, when it came to proportion of females to cubs over time and litter size, there was a statistically insignificant decline. Are more cubs surviving? When it comes to condition of male bears, there is no significant trend. One thing of note was that there were no outliers or bears in very poor condition for 2012-2013. This is worth noting since 2012-2013 was when we saw record lows in sea ice extent in the arctic. We would expect to see bears in poor condition if sea ice was direct correlate to polar bear health. So despite this marked decline in sea ice for this area in the last number of DECADES, there isnt a parallel dramatic decline in the health and body condition of the bears. Theres other factors other than sea ice decline that we have to look at. Maybe things arent all doom and gloom for the polar bears. The final report will be coming in June 2014. mosj.npolar.no/en/fauna/marine/indicators/polar-bear.html
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 21:55:48 +0000
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