Climate change impacts on seals and whales in the North Atlantic Arctic and adjacent shelf seas

摘要

In a warmer Arctic, endemic marine mammal species will face extreme levels ofhabitat change, most notably a dramatic reduction in sea ice. Additionally, thephysical environmental changes, including less ice and increased water (andair) temperatures will result in alterations to the forage base of arctic marinemammals, including density and distributional shifts in their prey, as well aspotential losses of some of their traditionally favoured fat-rich prey species. Inaddition they are likely to face increased competition from invasive temperatespecies, increased predation from species formerly unable to access them inareas of extensive sea ice or simply because the water temperature was,restrictive,increased isease risk and perhaps also increased risks from.