Climate Change in Habitat

Loss of
Polar Bears (Canada)
Aditi Bardhan
Post Graduate 2nd semester
Geography Department
Presidency University
22nd April, 2019

ABSTRACT

Climate Change is one of the burning issues of Global importance at present. Its impacts are far
reaching and one of them is the habitat loss of the Polar Bears who, though are still not in existential
crisis, are predicted to be so in new future, possibly by the end of 21st century. Climate change causes
heavy rain during their breeding period which causes collapse of maternity dens. Also they can’t
reach the shore as their transporting platforms i.e; the sea ice packs melt. Moreover, they feed on
ring seals which they hunt from the layers of the sea ice. Overall, shrinking of sea ice cover is a major
threat on the entire species population who now have to struggle for their existence. Canada being
the hotspot of polar bear population, shows the acute trends and condition of this furry vulnerable
species.

INTRODUCTION
Climate Change is not something recent but it has been there since the time of the birth of
Earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere. Since 650,000 years, there have been already 7 cycles
of glacial advance and retreat and the abrupt end of the last glacial age about 7000 years ago
marked the beginning of the modern climatic era[1]. Hence Climate Change is not really the
point of focus but the recent trend has become a matter of concern. Most of the researches
show that the recent trend of climate change if more of anthropogenic rather than natural. A
study in NASA shows that the trend of atmospheric CO2 has drastically increased after 1950s,
where CO2 is the major Greenhouse gas. Other heat trappers other than CO2 like Methane,
Nitrous Oxide, CFC, and other fluorinated gases along with water vapor has increased in 19th
and 20th century after the fueling of advancement by industrial revolution – these has become
anthropogenic contribution – all leading to Global Warming. The impacts of Global warming
is the most prominent in the Poles since glaciers are the most sensitive indicators of Climate
Change. Due to nearness to the continental mass the Arctic ice is highly affected and it has
declined largely in both extent and thickness. This has become a threat for to the Arctic
Ecosystem whose major part comprises of the Arctic Ice. Thus Ice reduction resulted to
habitat loss leading to extinction of several polar species.
Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) are the inhabitants of the Arctic Circle who are not only the
largest species of Bears but also the biggest carnivores among the land animals, but are now
threatened to their existence and have been declared as “Vulnerable” internationally by IUCN
in their Red List Category in 2015. Polar Bears’ Primary Habitat is sea ice on which they
depend for hunting seals, resting, seeking mates, breeding and also for maternity dens. Their
feeding period is also dependent on this sea ice which is between freeze up to breakup period
of sea ice in Arctic Circle, during which they hunt and feed and store the fat in their body to
keep on their metabolism during the ice free period. Hence, sooner the freeze up and later the
break up occurrences take place, its more favorable for the Polar Bears to survive and stay
healthy. But the recent trend of Climate Change owing to Global Warming has impacted even
on the far away frozen poles. The polar ice is breaking down and the surrounding circumpolar
regions are having greater period ice free seas than the frozen ones. This is having an acute
impact of the polar flora and fauna of which Polar Bears are also not exceptions. Loss of sea
ice has caused habitat loss for the Polar Bears leading them to be regarded as the threatened
species of the 21st century. Subpopulations of Polar Bears are found in 19 circumpolar regions
of Arctic Circle –
 Baffin Bay (BB)
 Barents Sea (BS)
 Chukchi Sea (CS)
 Davis Strait (DS)
 East Greenland (EG)
 Foxe Basin (FB)
 Gulf of Boothia (GB)
 Kane Basin (KB)
 Kara Sea (KS)
 Lancaster Sound (LS)
 Laptev Sea (LP)
 M’Clintock Channel (MC)
 Northern Beaufort Sea (NB)
 Norwegian Bay (NW)
 Southern Beaufort Sea (SB) Distribution of Subpopulations of Polar Bears around Arctic Belt (AB)
 Southern Hudson Bay (SH)
SOURCE: Regher et al., (2016)
 Viscount Melville Sound (VM)
 Western Hudson Bay (WH) NOTE: Sea ice in summer recedes pole wards and hence away
from the circumpolar coasts in Divergent Ice Ecoregion, whereas
in case of Archipelago & Convergent, sea ice generally stays still
in summer.
Study Area: There are around 20,000 – 25,000 polar bears world wide of which 64 to 80% are
found in Canada[3]. The ecoregions in Canada are mostly seasonal or archipelago. But
presently, because of global warming and climate change, the multilayered sea ice are becoming
annual layered sea ice and even ice free in some areas during summer. This is a major cause of
concern. Polar Bears are facing habitat loss there; as a result they are migrating onshore and
getting into the living space of human beings, like in towns like Churchill, which is dangerous
for both human beings and the polar bears. In Canada, the areas where polar bears can be found
are Labrador, Hudson Bay, James Bay, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories,
Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, Yukon, etc.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Arctic sea ice has an all bounded location where the land barriers prevent the sea ice to float
freely and reach the lower latitudes from the poles and melt, hence making sea ice accumulation
very prominent here. The Arctic Oscillation (AO) plays an important role in influencing sea ice
condition of Arctic Basin and its circumpolar areas. During positive AO, strong wind accumulate
over the pole and hence help in extended formation of sea ice. But recently, the relation between
AO and sea ice extent is not that significant as before; as presently the factor of warming is
overriding the impact of AO. Also reports say that the Arctic is warming up at a faster rate than
the global average[5].
Research Problem: Hence, Climate Change, following Global Warming, is being addressed as
the major influencing factor of Sea ice cover. Now, this sea ice, providing the platform of basic
means for existence to the polar bear population, has been their primary habitat and the irregular
freeze up and early breakup of the sea ice is putting a big question mark on the future existence
of an entire species clan owing to Habitat Loss, already identifying them as vulnerable.
Relevance of the Problem: Polar Bears are the highest predators of the Arctic Environment.
Hence decrease in Polar Bear population is not only threat to the species but also to the entire
Ecosystem Balance. Also polar bears are one of the major attractions of the local tourism. Polar
Bears being threatened, also impacts the Tourism Industry. This is not the scenario of only
Canada, other countries having polar bear are also facing the brunt of climate change. Hence in
November 15, 1973 a treaty was signed between 5 Nations – Canada, the U.S.A, Denmark (for
Greenland), Norway (for Svalbard) and Russia – those who contribute large shares in polar bear
population. This treaty is known as the Agreement on Conservation of Polar Bears where each
of the member states agreed on certain standard norms to protect the polar bear population. But
it is hardly enough to get rid of the larger impacts of a global phenomenon like Global Warming
which needs assistance from every single individual as anthrogenic influence on global warming
has taken the most significant role than the natural ones.
Evaluation of the Problem: The research is basically based on the population study of the artic
polar bears and population study of species is not something new in the field of scientific
research. Hence the topic is researchable. The topic is not very old, most of the literatures
available on this topic are from 1990s which also emphasizes a prominent influence of climate
change on the polar bear population, and the polar bears being the highest predators of the arctic
ecosystem, a change in polar bear population dynamics has definitely a large impact on the entire
ecosystem. But the major challenge faced here is to get a proper account of its population since
it’s not easy to have a complete understanding about the universe of the sample.
Literature Review: There are numerous literatures that studied the several aspects focusing on
climate change, its impacts on arctic basin and it flora and fauna and also special papers are there
on polar bear behavior and their life pattern. Ian Stirling and Andrew E. Derocher in their
paper[12] have discussed that the impact of this climate change is most adversely experienced
in the southern part of the polar bear extent. Places like Hudson Bay has acute impression of this
negative impact. They suggested that this unidirectional change in sea ice habitat coverage and
its distribution in long run will negatively correlate with the polar bear population. Also here the
ecological importance of sea ice in a polar bear life cycle has been established which shows that
the former directly controls reduced access to seals which often causes them underweight
problem and even starvation during maternity period. Climate change also brings winter rain
resulting into maternity den collapse – all these impacting their population trend in the long run.
The paper also claims that polar bears are true indicators of climatic warming as they are the top
predators of the marine arctic food chain. Stephen G. Hamilton et al., (2014)[13] in his study
has also given special emphasis on physical alteration of marine ecosystem due to climate change
that will bring about biological imbalance in the same. Hamilton’s study area was in Canadian
archipelago, where he deduced a projection study from 2006-2100. It validates the findings made
by several scholars that there has been a shift from multi-layer sea ice pack to annual layers and
the lengthening of ice free period which by the end of 21st century will be critical for the polar
bear archipelago subpopulations. The study’s projection establishes a prediction of starvation
and increased maternity failure by the concerned species by 2100. Study made by Josefino C.
Comiso[14] has done a quantitative study relying on satellite data on arctic sea ice from 1981 to
2010 and has verified the fact that there has been drastic decline in arctic perennial ice about
38% in 2007 and in the following three years though there has been an improvement, but still
the trend shows negative relation. Derocher and Stirling in another paper named “Polar Bears
in a Warming Climate”[15] has given special emphasis on pollution impact brought about in
arctic environment claiming that there will be an alteration in concentration and pathway of
pollutants allowing them to enter artic basin through air of ocean current transport. They have
also done a health assessment on polar bears showing their short (<10), medium(10-20) and
long(>20) period health conditions, induced by climate change and the prediction of their future
health behavior that shows decline and reduced variability in their trend that is suspected to lead
this species to extinction. All this paper reviews have validated the claims to vulnerability of
polar bears to climate change and habitat loss inspite of current data showing a stable population
of the species.
Research Objective: In this study, my objective is to find out the vitality of Global Warming, as
a reason of Polar Bears’ habitat loss, over the other influencing factors. For this, it is important
to explore what are the other factors that cause habitat loss of polar bears and how warming
effect overrides them in terms of significance. This study is specific to the polar bear bearing
regions of Canada where habitat loss of this species has created several problems.

The causal factors of polar bears’ habitat loss:

a) Toxic Pollution – Being the top predators of the arctic food chain, they are exposed to several
toxic pollutants released in Oceans and taken up through successive consumer levels.
b) Oil Exploration – There has been a recent focus of economic importance on oil drilling in
arctic region which will make polar bears even more vulnerable to oil spills or leaks.
c) Overhunting – The Inuit communities have permission to hunt polar bears following
Government regulated quotas. But sometimes illegal hunting occurs that result to
overhunting affecting the particular species population.
d) Commercial & Industrial Activities – Human intrusion into wildlife space is always hazardous.
e) Tourism & Recreation Activities – Overcrowding of tourists in their living space, in other
words, environmentally, exploits them making their wild space polluted.
f) Residential Extension – The exposure of water and land from beneath thick ice coverage due
to melting is attracting human habitation and its extension to the remote areas once safe
from human intervenes. Also construction of transport and communication lines are
hazardous to wild life.
g) Climate Change – The BIG problem.
Sea ice loss pertaining to polar bear habitat loss is a cumulative product of all these above
factors. But all of them other than Climate Change are local factors and hence can be mitigated
by local mitigation plans or utmost by national policies. But Climate Change being a global
phenomenon, it is not that easy to bring up mitigation plans and execute them efficiently. Also
Climate change is opening up frozen areas for human habitation, as a result, human intrusion
in wildlife space is also producing negative results. There are several global mitigation plans to
resist climate change like Kyoto Protocol, Emission Tax, Afforestation, etc. but the success rate
of their proper implementation is very low. Specially, in developing countries, where to support
huge population pressure rapid industrialization is taking place, huge quantity of carbon
elements and other greenhouse gases are added up to the atmosphere which reaches the
higher atmosphere and spread and affect the entire global sphere. And its impacts are most
prominent in Arctic areas. A study in Melbourne University under Dr. James Screen[8] reveals
that over the last two decades, warming effect in Arctic has intensified also producing a positive
albedo feedback system. Shiny sea ice platforms reflect back insolation, providing a shield to
the sea water from rising its temperature. Intense heating when make the bounded arctic sea
water ice free, immediately it starts a feedback mechanism where the ice free water traps even
more heat, making the system more efficient in entrapping heat. This decline in arctic sea ice
has directly impacted the polar bear population.

SOURCE: National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Hypothetical Proposition: Two hypothesis are formed to guide the research and its approach.
They are –
a. Working Hypothesis:- Climate Change owing to Global Warming is the major reason for
the present reduction of the Polar Bear Species caused by its Habitat Loss, for which they
have been rightfully identified as vulnerable species by IUCN. As data on ice cover extent
shows, the major habitat, i.e; the ice sheets are reducing. The threatening reduction of their
habitat is the major cause of their being vulnerable now.
b. Alternative Hypothesis:- Since Arctic habitat loss is not just a simple outcome of climate
change, rather a complex product of simultaneous influence of all the causal factors of
which other than the last one (Climate Change), all are global, there can be a scope to at
least slow down the melting process by local mitigation plan against these local factors
and also provide advantageous environmental conditions to the polar bears so that they
don’t starve to death because of melting sea ice as reviews suggest. Reviews show that
locally it has been possible to find an increase in polar bear subpopulations, hence a local
or regional than a global conservation procedure can be effective to maintain the global
population of the polar bears. Also educating and acknowledging people at a regional level
is much easier than doing the same globally. Also people are expected to cooperate since
saving polar bears can save the local tourism industries, its associated people from getting
unemployed, the dependent Inuit communities and also the Canadian citizens who often
face attacks from the intruded homeless hungry polar bears. Also being the top predator of
the arctic food cycle, polar bears’ extinction can lead to a complete collapse to the entire
arctic Marine-Terrestrial ecosystem.

FITTING INTO “PAPA” MODEL OF RESEARCH

The PAPA Model refers to Pure-Applied-Policy-Action Research Model. This Model helps
the researcher by providing guidelines on practical research.
a. Pure Research – implies to the researches that are solely concerned with scientific
researches.
This particular research is a pure research as its outcomes emphasize on Population
distribution, its abundance and the climatic, ecological and anthropogenic causes behind
their distribution.
b. Applied Research – implies to the researches that are concerned with the topics that
have the potentials for practical application.
 This particular Research also have some potential that help in forming policies based on
it and implementing these policies so that Polar Bear Population can be reserved.
c. Policy Research – implies to the researches that are based on practical issues of
interest to the decision makers.
This research also studies whether the policies implemented are having any effects on the
target population and its associates – both positive & negative. Since this research also
considers the other factors (local factors), hence it evaluates the policies by taking into
account that dynamics of these local factors.
d. Action Research – implies to those researches that particularly emphasizes actions
and their study to make direct improvements.
This research surely concludes certain suggestive actions for the remedy of this habitat
loss of the concerned species. But its primary motive is to study the cause and effect
relations that are actively playing roles in influencing the matter of concern i.e; Habitat
Loss of Polar Bears but not the actions that could stop it. Hence this particular research
work does not fit into the “Action” framework of PAPA Model of research.

RESEARCH ETHICS FOLLOWED

 Since the study area is a remote space and too expensive to reach, hence the research had
to completely rely on secondary data. And to avoid data Plagiarism, every single source
of data has been mentioned in the reference part.
 A proper referencing has been done to include all the sources from where the research
has drawn its guidance.
 A proper Literature Review has been provided comprising of works of the early
researchers.
 As being responsible to provide true data, none of the information has been invented.
 No particular Race or Culture or Community has been targeted to blame them as the
responsible behind such loss of this species.

LIMITATIONS
Many obstacles are bound to arise on the way of progress of the research starting from data
collection to its conclusion. Some of which can be envisioned now at this level are –
 Firstly, the data being secondary, its validity and reliability can’t be completely ensured.
  Secondly, Arctic sea ice that serves as the major habitat location for the Polar Bears are
not easy to reach and explore, hence many information gaps might be faced during
progress of the research.
 Thirdly, it might be sometimes difficult to differentiate the influence of the factors
causing Habitat Loss because the impacts that we see on the Arctic Ice cover is mainly
due to the complex relation of these factors and their cumulative impact.
 Lastly, Global Warming, as considered in this research, being considered as the greatest
culprit behind this, it might be difficult to conclude to any suggestive measure to prevent
it as whatever policies being suggested needs to have a Global dimension.

REFERENCES
1. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
2. https://www.carbonbrief.org/polar-bears-and-climate-change-what-does-the-science-
say
3. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/polar-bear
4. https://arcticwwf.org/species/polar-bear/threats/
5. https://arcticwwf.org/work/climate/
6. http://www.wwf.ca/conservation/arctic/wildlife/polar_bear/
7. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22823/14871490
8. https://polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/habitat/
9. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428142324.htm
10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/11/26/why-the-polar-bear-is-
still-a-pretty-good-icon-for-global-warming/?utm_term=.d3aeb8d29513
11. https://polarbearscience.com/2014/02/18/graphing-polar-bear-population-estimates-
over-time/
12. Stirling, Ian, and Andrew E. Derocher. "Possible impacts of climatic warming on polar
bears." Arctic (1993): 240-245.
13. Hamilton, Stephen G., et al. "Projected polar bear sea ice habitat in the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago." PLoS One 9.11 (2014): e113746.
14. Comiso, Josefino C. "Large decadal decline of the Arctic multiyear ice cover." Journal
of Climate 25.4 (2012): 1176-1193.
15. Derocher, Andrew E., Nicholas J. Lunn, and Ian Stirling. "Polar bears in a warming
climate." Integrative and comparative biology 44.2 (2004): 163-176.
16. https://robertscribbler.com/2015/09/03/arctic-sea-ice-prepping-for-new-record-lows-in-
2016-2017-jaxa-at-second-lowest-extent-on-record/
17. Guthrie, Gerard. Basic research methods: An entry to social science research. SAGE Publications India,
2010.