{"id":3531,"date":"2018-01-08T22:31:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T22:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seapop.no\/?p=3531"},"modified":"2021-02-26T12:23:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T11:23:27","slug":"the-little-auk-cannot-escape-the-climate-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seapop.no\/en\/2018\/01\/the-little-auk-cannot-escape-the-climate-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"The little auk cannot escape the climate threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A study published recently in the journal Scientific Reports shows that the little auk can adapt to different environmental conditions to find prey for itself and its offspring. This flexibility makes the species robust to climatic change, but only to a certain degree \u2013 the rate of temperature increase that we see today will inevitably lead to deterioration of the foraging habitats, and in time, the species will have to move northwards. The only problem is that there is no land left to inhabit.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Arctic is warming faster than any other part of the Earth, and wild animals in this environment are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of the ongoing climate change. They can respond by either migrating to a more suitable habitat or adapting to the changes. One way to predict a species\u2019 response to warming is to model its current distribution in order to identify important features that shape the species\u2019 niche. Such work has been conducted on little auks on Svalbard through a Polish-Norwegian project collaboration. The researchers have studied satellite data, diet samples and GPS tracks of little auks breeding in Hornsund, Magdalenefjorden and on Bj\u00f8rn\u00f8ya to describe the characteristics of little auk feeding habitats and to assess the suitability of these habitats under two scenarios of sea surface temperature (SST) increase in July: +1 and +2 \u00b0C, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the article:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n