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IMAGE: Researchers aboard the research vessel Mirai watched water vapor rise from the Chukchi Sea, resembling the mist that rises from a hot bath in a cold room. The Pacific Ocean. view more
Credit: Photo by Jun Inoue, National Institute of Polar Research, CC BY-SA.
Experts in Japan recently discovered that atmospheric conditions near Alaska can affect sea ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean months later. The team used various data, including ship-based data from 2018, to uncover how a single atmospheric event over the northern Pacific Ocean caused significantly delayed sea ice formation in the Pacific Arctic region. Global warming is going on, so the global mean surface air temperature is increasing, but compared to that trend, the Arctic is warming twice or more as fast, said Assistant Professor Tsubasa Kodaira, first author of the recent research publication and an expert in applied physical oceanography from the University of Tokyo.
December 11, 2020 at 6:00 am
Baikal seals are fans of bite-sized portions, and this dietary quirk may be why the seals are thriving.
Found in Russia’s immense Lake Baikal, the Siberian mammals devour tiny marine crustaceans, likely using comblike teeth in a manner similar to how baleen whales feed, a new study finds.
The research suggests that Baikal seals (
Pusa sibirica) use a combination of special teeth, speed and skill to gobble up dozens of inch-long critters called amphipods on a single dive, scientists report November 16 in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Typically, seals eat fish and mollusks, though some southern seals, like crabeater seals (