Long-Term Studies Detect Effects of Disappearing Snow and Ice

ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2012) — Regions of Earth where water is frozen for at least a month each year are shrinking as a result of global warming. Some of the effects on ecosystems are now being revealed through research conducted at affected sites over decades. They include dislocations of the relationships between predators and their prey, as well as changes in the movement through ecosystems of carbon and nutrients. The changes interact in complex ways that are not currently well understood, but effects on human populations are becoming apparent.

Ecosystems are changing worldwide as a result of shrinking sea ice, snow, and glaciers, especially in high-latitude regions where water is frozen for at least a month each year -- the cryosphere. Scientists have already recorded how some larger animals, such as penguins and polar bears, are responding to loss of their habitat, but research is only now starting to uncover less-obvious effects of the shrinking cryosphere on organisms.

An article in the April issue of BioScience describes some impacts that are being identified through studies that track the ecology of affected sites over decades.

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120406082844.htm