New study shows seal moms prefer slow and steady icebergs, while seals prefer faster ice in better foraging grounds later in the year.
New study shows seal moms prefer slow and steady icebergs, while seals prefer faster ice in better foraging grounds later in the year.
Harbor seals in icy regions use icebergs shed by glaciers as safe platforms to give birth, care for young and molt. New research finds that as glaciers change with the climate, the resulting changes in size, speed and number of icebergs affect seals’ critical frozen habitat. Mother seals prefer stable, slower-moving bergs for giving birth and caring for newborn pups, while in the molting season, they and the rest of the seal population favor speedier ice near the best foraging grounds.
“Our work provides a direct link between a glacier’s advance and seals’ distribution and behavior,” said Lynn Kaluzienski, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska Southeast who led the study. “Interdisciplinary studies like this one coupled with long-term monitoring campaigns will be important to understand how climate change will influence tidewater glacier fjord ecosystems in the future.”
Kaluzienski will present the findings at AGU’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, 10 December. From 9-13 December, #AGU24 brings together more than 30,000 scientists to discuss the latest in Earth and space science research.
Read more at American Geophysical Union
Photo Credit: AlKalenski via Pixabay
