How could polar bear populations be effected by Global Warming on the polar ice ecosystem?

Answer 1

Polar Bear populations could be effected by global warming on the polar ice ecosystem for various reasons. Their environment is melting which doesn't give much of a problem to them since polar bears don't need ice to survive. But it does make finding prey more difficult for the bears. Polar Bears move slow because they will overheat in their fur and extra layers of blubber, that makes it even harder for them to hunt when (with the warmer air temperatures) they cant move as fast without overheating. Soon the populations would go down quite a bit.

Hopefully this is merely a " what if" type issue anyway. Polar bears are not decreasing yet and global warming appears to be a non existent issue also. Globally, 1999 was the warmest year recorded and NASA sees our oceans cooling.


The sea ice in the Actic has been melting earlier in the summers for the past few years, reducing their hunting season by up to a month, meaning they get less food over the course of the year, in turn meaning their young also get less food and have a lower chance of survival. The Polar Bears also have to swim a lot further for seals on the ice to eat, and with less food they have less energy, thus occasionally (though there haven't been many reported cases) causing them to drown from exhaustion.

The ice in the last two years has been cooling, possibly due to the land ice melting and running down into the sea, thus keeping the top layer of water cool, preventing the ice from melting so much.

From what few studies that have been actually done and not just speculated on the polar bears, the population is not declining and appears to have increased quite abit the past 30 years. Estimates are that an additional 1,800 bears have been added to the population in the past 30 years.

The idea that the planet is outside normal warming trends, while not really scientifically realistic, is a remote possibility. The record ice grow last year coming even earlier then ever recorded should dispell the above myths of shorter seasons. Polar bears also are called sea bears because they spend enormous times swimming and hunting in the water.