Four decades of change: a seabird responds to a melting Arctic
Natural Resource SciencesÌýSeminar Series - Wildlife Biology—featuring a series of external speakers on topics relevant to Wildlife Biology and Environmental Biology.
Guest Speaker: GeorgeÌýDivoky (Director, Friends of Cooper Island)
The breeding biology of an Arctic seabird, the Black Guillemot, has been studied annually since 1975 inÌý northern Alaska where rates of atmospheric and oceanic warming have been among the most pronounced in the world.ÌýÌý The species is adapted to feeding in and next to Arctic sea ice and while it first benefitted from warming, as earlier snowmelt facilitated range expansion and colony growth, reductions in sea ice have decreased colony size and breeding success.Ìý The species' response toÌýcryosphericÌýdecreases in the last half century provides biological evidence of the rapid pace of environmental change in the Arctic and demonstrates the importance of long-term studies during a period of climate change.Ìý
This seminar series is open to anyone within the Ã山ǿ¼é community, but primarilyÌýtargets NRS grad students and faculty.
Ìý