Electrical storms threaten boreal forests fringing the Arctic (File photo)
Meteorologists were stunned this week when three successive thunderstorms swept across the icy Arctic from Siberia to north of Alaska, unleashing lightning bolts in an unusual phenomenon that scientists say will become less rare with global warming.
“Forecasters hadn’t seen anything like that before,” said Ed Plumb, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fairbanks, speaking about the storms that started on Saturday.
Typically, the air over the Arctic Ocean, especially when the water is covered with ice, lacks the convective heat needed to generate lightning storms.
But as climate change warms the Arctic faster than the rest of the world, that s changing, scientists say.
Environmental News Network - Study Shows How Varying Climate Conditions Impact Vulnerable Species enn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from enn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit: University of Arkansas
New findings on the diet of Arctic foxes, determined by the condition of their teeth, show how varying climate conditions in the Arctic affect the animals that live there.
In a study published in
Polar Biology, Peter Ungar, Distinguished Professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas, and several co-authors analyzed tooth breakage and wear - both gross and micro - of Arctic foxes from Russia s Yamal Peninsula.
Studying the effect of varying climate conditions within this region helps scientists understand the impact of climate change on vulnerable animals and could explain future responses and adaptation, given the warming trend and thawing in Arctic areas. The researchers study is the first to combine dental proxies for short-term, or seasonal, and long-term, or lifetime, diet to better understand how resource depletion affects species differently in different locations within the Arctic.
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New Research Shows Shifting Fortunes of 2 Southern Ocean Penguin Species
New research shows population declines of more than 50% for chinstrap penguins on Elephant Island near the Antarctic Peninsula.
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Elephant Island, where British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew were marooned for several months in 1916, is today inhabited only by wildlife and sits at an ecological crossroads between Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
In early 2020, funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, scientists from Stony Brook and Northeastern universities spent 12 days surveying the island, a feat that had been accomplished only once before, by a British Joint Services expedition in 1970-71.