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Adrift

August 27, 2014

A polar bear pulls itself onto a small floe to rest between seal-hunting forays. The volume of sea ice in the Arctic has declined sharply in recent decades, with grave consequences for polar bears and other denizens of the North. Working with models of sea ice extent and polar bear numbers, WHOI biologist Hal Caswell and colleagues estimated that at least one population of polar bears in northern Alaska will disappear by the year 2100 due primarily to lack of sea ice. Caswell spoke at a recent Morss Colloquium on the impacts of climate change on polar ecosystems. (Photo by Carolina Nobre, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)