Yale e360: Arctic Wildlife Research Suffers as Geopolitical Competition Grows

Arctic agendas are shifting to national security and the hunt for rare minerals. That has translated to an unprecedented slashing for wildlife research in the region at a time when climate change is dramatically reshaping every facet of life on the planet’s northern reaches.

“There have always been ebbs and flows in the support for environmental monitoring in the Arctic,” said Larry Hinzman, an expert in Arctic change at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. “But what we are seeing now is unprecedented. It’s heartbreaking because we need to know more than ever how to respond to a warming Arctic that is affecting almost every facet of life.”

And:

The decline in Arctic research comes at a time when at least 96 Arctic and sub-Arctic mammal and bird species may be responding to warmer winters, earlier spring snowmelt, and profound landscape changes by migrating earlier in the year and traveling farther afield, sometimes in new directions. But dozens of studies have shown that these journeys don’t always lead to more food. And they often expose birds to additional parasites and pathogens and put them at greater risk of predation.

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