Sentences with phrase «in polar bear habitat»

U.S.G.S. reports forecasting strong declines in polar bear habitat and numbers were keys to that decision.

It is pushing for new oil and gas drilling in polar bear habitat while biologists for Interior Department, prodded by legal action, recommended the bear be given threatened status under the species act because of the warming of the Arctic and summer retreat of sea ice.

Not exact matches

Some argue that, since it is illegal to engage in activities that could harm or kill threatened or endangered species, Americans should be forced to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to preserve polar bear habitat.

The Interior Department lists the polar bear as a «threatened» species — one at risk of becoming endangered — due to dangerous declines in their sea ice habitat

One «growing phenomenon in the Arctic [is] polar bears foraging on land as their primary habitat, sea ice, retreats,» Kintisch writes, which makes field work even more dangerous, and difficult, than it would be otherwise.

An international «Red List» of threatened species says that the polar bear is vulnerable to extinction because of a projected decline in its habitat linked to climate change that is melting sea ice in the Arctic.

The rule in question was finalized by the Bush administration in December, six months after the polar bear was declared a threatened species due to the melting of its sea - ice habitat.

IT WILL be little consolation to hungry polar bears in northern Manitoba, Canada, who have had to wait weeks longer than usual for sea ice to form on Hudson Bay, but their habitat is not irreversibly doomed.

With more genomes in hand, researchers are teasing out when and how polar bears came to be so successful in such a harsh habitat.

By shedding light on potential mechanisms that facilitated that bear's survival during her long swim, as well as the overall metabolism and activity of bears, the current study «profoundly contributes to understanding the value of summer habitats used by polar bears in terms of their energetics,» Harlow says.

Amstrup adds, «It fills a gap in our otherwise extensive knowledge of polar bear ecology and corroborates previous findings that the key to polar bear conservation is arresting the decline of their sea ice habitat.»

Sea ice also provides crucial coastal protection in the Arctic, hunting grounds for local tribes, and habitats for creatures from polar bears to seals.

However, life becomes no laughing matter for the other polar bears, reindeer and orca that exist in their icy habitat when humans start visiting with cameras, boats.

It had been a dream of mine to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

Also, I'm not sure I see strong support for this concluding sentence: «Although polar bears have persisted through previous warm phases, multiple human - mediated stressors (e.g., habitat conversion, persecution, and accumulation of toxic substances in the food chain) could magnify the impact of current climate change, posing a novel and likely profound threat to polar bear survival.»

Because polar bears are entirely dependent upon the sea ice for their survival, any observed and projected reductions in preferred sea ice habitats can only result in declines.

Extent, for once, is crucial in determining the amount of absorbed solar radiation, the area of polar bear (and other animals») habitat, the amount of snow that falls onto sea ice, etc..

Second, the polar bear's sea - ice habitat has dramatically melted in recent decades.

Because polar bears are vulnerable to this loss of habitat, they are, in my judgment, likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future — in this case 45 years....

The next step is to secure the long - term survival of the species by ensuring that the polar bear habitat in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas is protected from the threat of oil and gas drilling.

As the Service itself states, a downward trend in ice habitat has been observed since 1979, yet the polar bear has not exhibited the same downward trend.

She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts.

Meeting in Tromso, Norway, representatives from the five signatories — the United States, Norway, Canada, Russia and Denmark — said that worldwide agreement and action would be needed to reduce the risk, driven by accumulating greenhouse gases, that polar bears would lose their sea - ice habitat in summers later this century.

Polar bears are being driven from their usual habitats on the disappearing polar ice at the same time that grizzlies are moving farther north because of global warming, resulting in cross-breeding.

Climate warming is reducing the availability of their ice habitat, especially in the spring when polar bears gain most of their annual fat reserves by consuming seal pups before coming ashore for the summer.

«Variation in the response of an Arctic top predator experiencing habitat loss: feeding and reproductive ecology of two polar bear populations.»

I wondered what the similarity in extent for 2013 and 2009 might tell us about polar bear habitat development over the next month or so.

The predominance of local vegetation in collected scat suggests little movement among habitat types between feeding sessions, indicating that the polar bears are keeping energy expenditure down.

Far from being endangered, vulnerable, or threatened, polar bears are thriving; their populations have exploded in virtually all of their habitats of the circumpolar nations.

Today, I'll take a look at sea ice and ringed seal habitat in the Gulf of Boothia and M'Clintock Channel, as well as information from a study on polar bear diets, which together shine some light on why the Gulf of Boothia is such a great place for polar bears.

Many, many people associated climate change with the notion that polar bears might become extinct as their Arctic habitat disappeared in the face of future climate changes.

In other words, the prediction schemes used to get polar bears listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act treat the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as identical habitats that would be among the worst affected.

The eastern Barents Sea (located in Russian territory), as defined by the Polar Bear Specialist Group (see map below), provides ample habitat for polar bears to thrive despite extended fluctuations in seasonal sea ice cover in the western portion.

Bottom line: Barents Sea polar bears are loyal to this region because the eastern portion has the habitat they require to thrive even when sea ice cover in the western portion essentially disappears for thousands of years at a time.

Abstract Increased land use by polar bears (Ursus maritimus) due to climate - change - induced reduction of their sea - ice habitat illustrates the impact of climate change on species distributions and the difficulty of conserving a large, highly specialized carnivore in the face of this global threat.

Climate warming is reducing availability of their ice habitat, especially in spring when polar bears gain most of their annual fat reserves by consuming seal pups before coming ashore in summer.

Polar Bears Have Big Feet has no gory images, no discussion of starving bears, climate change, or threatened species — just fabulous pictures of polar bears doing what they do in their natural Arctic habitat, accompanied by lighthearted descriptions.

However, according to NSIDC Masie figures, polar bear habitat at mid-May registers about 12 million km2, just as it did in 2006 (although it is distributed a little differently); other data show spring extent has changed little since a major decline occurred in 1989, despite ever - rising CO2 levels.

They warned «sea ice has been projected to disappear in the 2030s or before» and lost sea ice was both a future and «current threat to this important habitat of the polar bear.»

Species that already live on the tops of mountains or in the Polar Regions (such as the polar bear) will be unable to migrate upward or poleward into cooler habitats and so risk extinction.

Even though it is not the main scope of our paper, we described the scientific context of polar bear ecology and explained how and why polar bears depend on their sea ice habitat (summarized in my previous blog post).

This loss of habitat puts polar bears at risk of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future, the standard established by the ESA for designating a threatened species.»

And as climate change accelerates, polar bear habitat will be put in ever increasing danger.

The best known consequence of disappearing sea ice in the Arctic is the loss of the polar bear habitat.

For example, the extent of the polar bear's habitat is determined by the maximum seasonal surface area of marine ice in a given year.

As sea ice thins, and becomes more fractured and labile, it is likely to move more in response to winds and currents so that polar bears will need to walk or swim more and thus use greater amounts of energy to maintain contact with the remaining preferred habitats.

As the ice melts and Arctic temperatures warm, polar bears are forced to find new habitat (usually farther south, where the humans also live in greater numbers).

â $ œFuture challenges for conserving polar bears and their Arctic habitat will be greater than at any time in the past because of the rapid rate at which environmental change appears to be occurring.

Seals, walrus and polar bears are much more flexible and resilent to changes in habitat conditions than most modern biologists give them credit for and consequently, it will be fascinating to see how the ice will change over the coming months and how the animals will respond.

• The greatest change in sea ice habitat since 1979 was experienced by Barents Sea polar bears and the least by those in Southern Hudson Bay, the most southerly region inhabited by bears.