Team: 9
School: Jackson Middle School
Area of Science: Environmental
Interim: Polar bears
-Annabelle Brown, Sofia Cruz, Aiyana McCabe
Climate change has affected polar bears , their food source, and most of their habitats and climate. Over the past century the world's temperature has risen about 2 degrees fahrenheit, though that doesn’t sound like a lot, it can and has already been detrimental to the Arctic ice sheets. It has affected the health of animals and their environment as they know it. The thin ice splinters from the ice sheet and polar bears become marooned on the fractured ice sheets, and are not able to return to their habitat without a helping hand.
Greenland supports about 2,500 out of the approximately 20,000-25,000 polar bears in the Arctic. However Polar bears are getting wiped out because their environment, sea ice, is melting, and it is completely out of their hands. If things are going at the speed they are now, in 2040, in approximately 18 years polar bears habitats will be so affected by climate change that they will be forced into polar bear reserves located in northern Canada and Greenland. 13% of sea ice melts every decade, which changes the arctic ice.There is also the affect ice melt has on the long term food web of the arctic circle.As the ice is melting more sunlight is showing through, causing algae called “ice algae†to die along with it, many things depend on “ice algae†so, like a domino effect it will hurt all animals in the arctic circle. This is an example that shows visually Greenland's ice melt/temperature changes over time. We will only be doing Greenland because that is where the largest population of both polar bears and seals are located. Seals are their main food source. Seals prefer the abundant algae in the area
This example shows a map of Greenland and their ice melt and ice gain from 2019-2020. Knowing that it changed that much just over a one year span is making it really scary to think about the future of the polar bears. But it is even scarier knowing that Greenland is the home to a hefty amount of the population of Polar bears today. With that thought in mind we can determine that if we do not help, the polar bears will be dying along with their home.
We brainstormed many solutions to this problem.We plan to use satellite image maps of thin ice areas and find more suitable living conditions and cultivate a rich algae supply for seals. The solutions we considered are physically moving the polar bears, airlifting them, using snow blowing equipment, and adding more seals to polar bear hunting grounds. These solutions are unideal and more damaging than beneficial. The best alternative is to breed algae in a more suitable location based on satellite imaging. This would draw more polar bears because their main food source is starting to repopulate in that area.
As of right now unfortunately we have not begun the coding part of our project, however we have a framework for our model. In our map we want to show the current population of polar bears in Greenland, as well for their food source, seals. As for the geographical part of the map we intend to add altitude markers, and where the seals are most populated in Greenland. Using the satellite images of ice sheets our model will have authentic ice density locations. As for the climate aspect of our map we want to include how quickly and where ice melt and sea level rising is happening, as well as where is getting the most heat in Greenland. We would like to manipulate the variable (the algae location) to truly see if the seals will follow the algae, in turn the polar bears will follow . Our model will demonstrate the solutions to the rapidly changing polar bear environment.
Works Cited
If you are interested in helping directly you can share or donate to, https://polarbearsinternational.org, anything helps.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/global-temperatures
https://wwf.panda.org
https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/six-ways-loss-of-arctic-ice-impacts-everyone#:~:text=We%20lose%20Arctic%20sea%20ice,in%20the%20summer%20by%202040.
https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?301832/Arctic%2Dfood%2Dchain%2Dmelting%2Dalong%2Dwith%2Dthick%2Dsea%2Dice
Image
Credit: DMI Polar Portal.
Team Members:
Sofia Cruz
Aiyana McCabe
Annabelle Brown
Sponsoring Teacher: Karen Glennon