Dr. Brendan Kelly presented a brief, yet interesting, thought (and question) provoking overview of marine mammals and the changing arctic. Specifically he touched on three themes: how marine mammals are already being impacted by global climate change, adaptation, and the unexpected question of how science can keep up with the pace of change.

Dr. Kelly started the lecture off with an anecdote about how indigenous cultures’ perceptions are different than our own. It was obvious that he has spent a lot of time with these cultures due to the location of his field work and he shared his awe and appreciation with us. Perhaps one of the most memorable parts was how some cultures, like us, use their hands to count, but surprisingly they use a base 8 system of counting by using the spaces between fingers instead of the fingers themselves, as we do. He continued on with the indigenous viewpoints opener when he talked about how an arctic island community knew the shape of their island before airplanes were created. They noticed the differential reflection of ice versus open water and saw the shape of their island projected on cloud cover when under the right conditions. This helped ancient indigenous hunters.

Dr. Kelly moved on to the larger discussion about pinnipeds (seals, walruses, etc) which was the main subject of the presentation. Pinnipeds need shelter from predation in order to breed and since the shorelines are predator heavy they have adapted to survive on and under the sea ice in the polar seas. They feed pelagically and benthically and their life history strategies match seasonal ice extent. Sea ice, unlike continents, has seasonal expansion and reduction and therefore pinnipeds have adapted to this situation.

New to me was that some seals, especially bearded seals, molt every year and then regenerate their skin and hair. Summer is a critical period for them since in order to regenerate properly they have to sun themselves on the ice. With climate change, the loss of summer ice may force them onto continental shorelines where there’s a much larger risk of predation. In fact, this is already being observed in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.

Another climate impact that is threatening marine mammals is hybridization, cross-breeding of species. This is already being seen with polar bears and brown bears. Hybridization may be another route for extinction.

Dr. Kelly’s methodology gave us good insight into why he enjoys this work so much as it involves the use of his pet Labrador Retrievers, who he trained himself, and snow mobiles to track and capture seals in their snow caves that are used for protection, breeding. They utilizes a “breathing hole” to stay protected. The dogs help them find these snow caves, the researchers set up the net trap, and then make sure to cover the hole they made up tightly (otherwise the seals will not come back to that spot), and then they return to camp while listening on the radio for the seal to return to the hole. (Side Note: Polar bears have adapted hunting techniques to replicate properly covering a snow hole with their bodies. This tricks the seals into thinking the holes are covered and then when they surface they feast!) The seals are tagged for one year to track their patterns since they move seasonally. In August/September the seals tend to move around quite a bit and then the rest of the year they go back within 2 km of the same area for breeding.

As climate change amplifies and sea ice extents shrink marine mammals will have to respond to these shifts if the populations are to adapt successfully. What kind of evolutionary response will they come up with and is there enough time for an evolutionary response? They could change the timing of breeding with the ice, but that would assume the seals can keep pace with the changing climate and learn to adapt and read the ice.

Dr. Kelly brought up the idea of how bacteria have a short generation time and reproduce rapidly therefore are able to respond and adapt quickly to changes, whereas mammals generation times are long and slow and therefore they can’t adapt as quickly. Local extinctions are perhaps inevitable in the arctic because of the pace of change.

Dr. Kelly pointed out that the arctic changes occurring don’t just impact individual species or marine mammals, but in fact whole ecosystems. Specialized algae exist under the ice that zooplankton feed on. We’re looking at a fundamental shift in whole ecosystems, not just for the charismatic megafauna.

The questions asked from the audience were fantastic, such as “what are the critical needs for arctic research if science can’t keep up with the pace of climate change and what needs to be done by the policy community?” His response was that people need to tell the scientists what’s important to them, he’s particularly interested in molting and how the species will survive with changing ice, but the science community needs to be told what the priorities are too. He doesn’t believe we should think species by species as the Endangered Species Act does, we need to look at whole ecosystems. For the policy community, he recommended more sophisticated handling of information and the need to look at complicated relationships. He offered that the scientific community needs to step up and communicate those complex relationships and ideas better to policymakers.

Dr. Kelly finished by stating that ramping up investment in research is essential as well as “locking up the most intelligent people out there in a room with lots of coffee”.  I agree. One question, would NSF fund that approach?  

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