Warming trends

Despite a cooler and wetter than normal summer, at least here in southern Ontario, there continue to be regular reports of the impact of global climate change on game species in Canada’s Far North. For instance, just last week debate was raging in the N.W.T.’s over hunting quotas for caribou herds whose populations are rapidly declining (click here for the cbc.ca story). I stumbled across a couple of compelling stories on the topic today I thought others might be interested in reading.

First there’s the story headlined: “Is the musk ox the next dodo?” on the globeandmail.com from last Saturday’s paper. It included this frightening quote from Marcel Cardillo of Imperial College’s department of biological sciences:

“We need to keep an eye on species before they start declining to extinction. What we think is safe now may soon go through a rapid decline. We shouldn’t be too confident about the species around us.”

And today on thestar.com from The Toronto Star, there’s a story titled “Arctic’s ‘canary in a coal mine’” about research into the effects of climate change on plankton, those tiny organisms at the bottom of the food chain that many fish species rely on. While the story reports that scientists haven’t yet seen any Arctic plankton species go extinct, researchers are watching closely for the presence of Pacific Ocean plankton in the Far North. Says John Nelson, a Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist:

“If a Pacific species was established in the Arctic, this would really be news. But we have not detected this yet. What could happen in this scenario is that, if the invader out-competes the native species, this could lead to fundamental changes in ecosystem function.”

And no doubt to fundamental changes in how we hunt and fish.