Reduced Numbers of Arctic Cod Due to Global Warming Could Cause Entire Arctic Food Web to Unravel

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Earthtimes.com: Reduced Numbers of Arctic Cod Due to Global Warming Could Cause Entire Arctic Food Web to Unravel, Put More Strain on Polar Bears and Narwhals

Posted : Tue, 01 May 2007 13:44:00 GMT
Author : Joe Vickless

Washington, D.C. – Global warming could cause a drop in the number of Arctic cod, which are the most important prey species in northern seas and a key component of the Arctic food web, according to the latest chapter of Defenders of Wildlife’s global warming series “Navigating the Arctic Meltdown.”

The fatty, oily Arctic cod is ideal prey for seals, narwhals and salmon in the Arctic, but global warming could be shaking up the entire food web and starving the cod itself because of shrinking and shifting pack ice. Sea ice, marine plants, plankton and Arctic cod form an inter-related food web that sustains other animals such as polar bears and ivory gulls. Now, however, the delicate process by which the marine plants grow from the sea ice is threatened by global warming.

“Global warming is pulling the rug out from beneath the Arctic’s food supply because the survival of many plants and animals depends on the explosive summer bloom of marine plants under the sea ice,” says Chris Haney, chief scientist for Defenders of Wildlife. “With more sea ice melting and retreating from shore due to global warming, the plants’ bloom cycle is likely to be disrupted, jeopardizing the cod and other species that depend on it. If this happens, the cupboards in the pack-ice kitchen will become increasingly bare to whales, seals and fish that depend on the cod for food.”

In Canada, narwhals, the unique tusked whales, feed predominantly on the Arctic cod, so a decline in their population would be a severe blow to the narwhal’s food supply. Arctic cod are also important prey to larger fish, including Atlantic salmon, Greenland halibut and Arctic char, which are fished by humans for subsistence and limited commercial uses.

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http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,97997.shtml