How Extreme Weather Links The Fates Of Four Adorable Arctic Species
Arctic Fox This arctic fox lives in Svalbard. Brage Bremset HansenFor the first time, scientists show how climate synchronizes different species. Researchers are already learning how a changing climate can affect populations of individual species, from plants to animals. But they haven't been able to really pin down how entire communities of different species will respond to changing global patterns. Now a study that examines four super-hardy Arctic animals shows how climate change will bring the birth and death rates of each species into sync. Just four animals make their year-round home in Norway's frigid Svalbard archipelago: reindeer, rock ptarmigans, little rodents known as sibling voles, and Arctic foxes, which eat the other three. Scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology studied populations of these animals living on the island of Spitsbergen, which is at 78 degrees north latitude. The three herbivores already fight for limited food supplies...