Samantha Instone

201602589

Conservation notes

Global Distribution
The main global distribution of the Arctic polar region can be scattered and overlapped from
different countries such as Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Russia as the main
connection that links all the countries together is by the Arctic Ocean in figure 1 (Anisimov et al.,
2007). The Arctic Ocean is mainly connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Norwegian Sea, Greenland
Sea and the small sea channels from in Northern Canada (Furgal and Prowse, 2007).

The Arctic region is covered by the Arctic Ocean, small islands and Northern continental land, as the
Arctic is defined as an area within the Arctic Circle with a latitude of 60 degree north of the region
(Anisimov et al., 2007; Kattsov et al., 2005).

Figure 1. A map of the world distribution of the polar system. The

areas in orange indicates the countries and areas within the Arctic
region (WWF, 2018).

Why is the Arctic Important?

There are different reasons why the Arctic is an important system, these are some of the reasons
why the Arctic is important;

Migration
Migration can be expensively costly as some of the species would have to travel long distances to
the Arctic. The reason why species migrate to the Arctic is either for the breeding or feeding
grounds. For example, the Shorebirds which would migrate from the tropics to the Arctic to breed
throughout the summer (O’Reilly and Wingfield, 1995). As well, beluga whale (Delphinapterus
leucas) uses migration to travel to Canada to moult and to reproduce (Hauser et al., 2014). Even
though this species would migrate to the Arctic Ocean to search for any resource available to the
species. This is important because there would be extra resources and habitat for the species to
travel to, especially for any species which would use expensive cost of locomotion to migrate.
Samantha Instone
201602589

Arctic sea ice

Arctic sea ice is the most characteristic in the polar systems. As one of the important features of the
sea ice is the main breeding and feeding spots for some of Arctic mammals such as seals (Pinniped
spp.) and walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) (Stroeve et al., 2008). As well the sea ice is important because
this allows the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) to remain camouflage in the snow against their predator
the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) (Kovacs et al., 2011). Without having the sea ice, then this could
have an impact on the web food of the Arctic species, as without any reproduction and their habitat
to live on, then these species would get exposed in the environment and might not survive.

Arctic Ocean circulation

The Arctic Ocean is important for the circulation of the world’s ocean, as this helps the warm water
in the Atlantic Ocean to cool down (WWF, 2018). The warm water is cooled down by the northern
freshwater rivers in Canada, that travels to the Arctic Ocean and allows the warmer waters from the
Atlantic to cool (Furgal and Prowse, 2007; Jones, 2001). Once the water is cool, the water flows
through pass Canada and Greenland back into the Atlantic Ocean. This is important for the system
because with the circulation of the water flow, there are more nutrients in the water flow. This
means there would be more variety of species which would feed on the nutrients in the waters
(Jones et al., 1998).

References
Anisimov, O.A., Vaughan, D.G., Callaghan, T.V., Furgal, C., Marchant, H., Prowse, T.D., et al. 2007.
Polar Regions (Arctic and Antarctic). Climate change. 15: pp 653-685.

Furgal, C., Prowse, T.D. 2007. Northern Canada. From impacts to adaption: Canada in a changing
climate, pp 57-118. Available online:
http://coastalchange.ca/download_files/external_reports/Furgal_(2008)_Ch3NorthernCanada.pdf.
[Accessed 23/4/2018].

Hauser, D.D.W., Laidre, K.L., Suydam, R.S., Richard, P.R. 2014. Population- specific home ranges and
migration timing of Pacific Arctic beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). Polar Biology. 37:1171-
1183.

Jones, P.E., Andersen, L.G., Swift, J.H. 1998. Distribution of the Atlantic and Pacific water in the
upper Arctic Oceans: Implication of circulation. Geophysical research letters. 25:765-768.

Jones, P.E. 2001. Circulation in the Arctic Ocean. Polar Research. 20:139-146.

Kattsov, V.M., Kallen, E., Cattle, H.P., Christensen, J., Drange, H., Hanssen-Bauer, et al. 2005.
Chapter4: Future climate change modelling and scenarios for the Arctic. Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment. pp 100- 144. Available online:
http://bora.uib.no/bitstream/handle/1956/764/Ch04_Pre-Release.pdf?sequence=1. [Accessed
23/4/2018].

Kovacs, K.M., Lydersen, C., Overland, J.E., Moore, S.E. 2011. Impacts of changing the sea-ice
conditions on the Arctic marine mammals. Marine Biodiversity. 41:181-194.

O’Reilly, K.M., Wingfield, J.C. 1995. Spring and Autumn migration in Arctic shorebirds: same distance,
different strategies. American Zoology. 35:222-233.

Stroeve, J., Serreze, M., Drobot, S., Gearheard, S., Holland, M., Maslanik, J., Meier, W., Scambos, T.
2008. Arctic sea ice extent plummets in 2007. EOS. 89:13-20.
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WWF. 2018. Arctic facts. [online] available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/arctic.

[Accessed 18th April 2018].