So, those are just some of the really dramatic examples that we’ve seen in the glaciers. It’s fascinating. Some aquatic insects--fundamental components of the food web--are especially sensitive to stream temperature and cannot survive without the cooling effects of glacial meltwater. We’ll start to notice that there’s species of fishes that have disappeared completely, from coral reefs as they disappear. So, several things: some of them are technological, and others are preventing and halting the decline of critical ecosystem services that are actually extremely important in stabilizing the atmosphere of the planet. With increased shipping comes spill risk (both fuel and cargo), “black carbon” emissions that help to speed the rate of Arctic melting, ship noise that may also affect whales, and icebreaking that can disrupt ice crossing routes for people and animals. Cool-weather animals, put on your running shoes. If animals can't move freely from one habitat to the next, then rare species could become stuck in sweltering conditions. And we see that in many parts of the world. Half of humanity relies on water that flows out of mountains either from snow or glaciers, into the lowlands. Glacial Melting Since glaciers are melting, many organisms are being affected. Then, over thousands of years, those glaciers began to melt and dribble away. Because physical geography connects different places together, the melting of glaciers in distant places can impact on people living in the UK in varied ways. Coursera [00:15:29]: Yeah, and I’m intrigued by the idea that we brought up earlier about how interconnected everything is. But, it is a landscape that I first visited in 1988. But scientists should use caution when applying the fates of animals during the Ice Age to the modern era, says Robert Colwell, a biogeographer at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. The plankton example that we were talking about a bit earlier, that study was over 120 years. But we also talk about climate, and we talk about the role of glaciers as water towers. Dr. David Hik [00:17:25]: Well, many of the extinctions we’ve seen have been of large mammals, predators in some cases– species that haven’t gone extinct, but they’ve been lost from certain areas in the mountains. The coming marches of many animals will likely dwarf what scientists like Sandel have seen following the waning of the Ice Age. The predators that are there would probably switch to other prey, to deer or moose or sheep or something like that. Things like moratoriums on developing Arctic oil and gas–or both stopping deforestation and active efforts to plant trees and capture carbon in natural ecosystems, forests, wetlands. Every year, there’s more heat in the oceans, and this will contribute to an increase in sea level. Below, listen to the conversation or read the transcript, and hear Dr. David Hik’s thoughts on: Enroll for free in his course Mountains 101 on Coursera. In a 2009 paper published in Nature, researchers coined the term "climate velocity" to describe the pace of such mass migrations. Coursera [00:00:00]: From Coursera, this is Emma Fitzpatrick, and today, I’m talking to Dr. David Hik of Simon Fraser University in Canada. Since industrial times, atmospheric CO2 has increased from about 280 parts per million up to where it is right now, about 415 parts per million. Dr. David Hik[00:01:24]: Well, the Yukon is a remarkable place. All of these changes that we’ve been discussing underpinned our motivation for putting Mountains 101 together. A new study … In the Mountains, Climate Change Is Disrupting Everything, from How Water Flows to When Plants Flower. But, conservation of energy will be important as well. Certain birds also rely on fish that are found in freshly melting glaciers. And so, anywhere on coastlines in every country around the Earth, where people live within a meter of the current high-tide level, will be experiencing a higher frequency of storm surges, an inundation of flooding. Dr. David Hik [00:09:04]: So, sea-level rise is a function of glaciers melting, and of the thermal expansion of water. And in a number of places, they’re down to sort of the last five or six individuals, so they’re functionally extinct. I don’t think people would notice a change in the ecosystem if caribou were lost from mountain environments. And on that front, how fast exactly are glaciers, ice, snow–that cryosphere that you mentioned– how fast are they melting? Effects of climate change on oceans provides information on the various effects that global warming has on oceans. When glaciers melt, because that water is stored on land, the runoff significantly increases the amount of water in the ocean, contributing to global sea level rise. That’s what we’re seeing in the parts of the world that are changing most rapidly, and that fundamentally is a one-way street as the Earth gets warmer and is what precipitates all of these other changes in the system. The big ice sheets in Greenland or in the Antarctic are a little more stable, but mountain glaciers around the world, the mid-latitude glaciers–say in Europe or North America or the Himalaya–they’ve been melting quite rapidly. That's because temperatures tend to be uniform across uniform landscapes, he says, meaning that animals will have to migrate long distances to reach cooler locales, putting locals at greater risks of extinction during times of change. Their melting water flows into the soil which affects vegetation which acts as food for animals at lower altitudes, some of which are prey for other animals and so on. We tend to think of natural places, and mountains in particular, as very interdisciplinary environments. And clearly, they’ve been able to adapt to a variety of situations. And I guess the short story is really that we’re still trying to understand and be able to better predict which species will be the winners in those scenarios and which we should be very concerned about and are at greatest risk of extinction. And the worrying thing is that 50 percent of the Earth’s surface now has dropped below that 90 percent threshold. The melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas could have a devastating effect on both animals and people. As the climate warms, the inevitable response of the cryosphere is enhanced melting. Ancient creatures across the globe from bats to frogs faced a difficult decision: adapt to the hotter conditions or move, usually north or up mountains, to chase the receding cooler breezes. People have used this to try to determine if some habitats are at greater risk than others. There’s no sort of easy way to tell which individuals are going to be at greatest risk. 3. So, one of the fairly universal responses to warming that we observe is a shift, an upward shift, in the limit of treeline, the altitudinal limit of treeline and shrub line and Tundra. See our study on Fisheries. A glacier is a slowly moving mass river of ice formed by the build-up and compaction of snow. Or do you look at it as a domino effect? These relatively speedy shifts may have driven local animals to extinction, says Brody Sandel, who studies ecoinformatics at Aarhus University in Denmark. Nearly 21,000 years ago, during what scientists call the Last Glacial Maximum, thick ice tracts swaddled much of North America and Europe. … That it’s possible to think about how we emerge from this emergency in a way that benefits humanity, all species, and we can live within the planetary boundaries of the resources that we have on Earth. Coursera [00:12:03]: So, when we talk through adapting versus going extinct, are those types of plants and animals–where they’re in a more vulnerable ecosystem, or there’s really just not a place for them to relocate and adapt– are those the ones that you think will be more likely to go extinct versus adapt? But we see the same thing happening in the forest and in the Alpine–and if you look a little more closely to some of the plants and animals that are living in those environments as well. Can you talk through exactly what biodiversity is and why it’s important? Following the Last Glacial Maximum, species seemed to die off en masse in regions experiencing rapid shifts in temperatures (shown in yellow and red), but they held on in many hilly regions like the Andes (inset). If temperatures keep rising, glaciers will continue melting, and some could disappear completely. Fresh Water Shortage The Effects of Melting Glaciers Risks Person Person Team Intro Since 1850, melting glaciers has always been a huge problem. How Melting Glaciers Affect the Food Coursera [00:03:44]: Yeah, It’s hard to talk about some of these issues without talking about all of the ways that they’re interconnected with the different ecosystems around. Dr. David Hik [00:13:53]: I mean, evolutionary processes can occur fairly quickly, or they can occur over very long periods of time. But if you were someone who lived in the area, these would all be changes that you couldn’t help but notice either. In parts of modern-day Canada or Northern Europe—"high velocity" regions—animals likely had to migrate close to 100 meters per year to keep within their ideal environments. Coursera [00:04:46]: Yeah. So while immediate affects of melting glaciers might revolve more around rising sea levels, an equally significant longer-term effect will be reduced water, which results in its own problems. If we wait for things to fully break down, that is rather late to start to try to restore that damage. Coursera [00:15:21]: And when you’re thinking about what animals and plants you’re most concerned about as the planet warms, what are the ones on top of your list? Coursera [00:13:41]: And do you know, from your research or studies, how long that adaption process happens? Some bird species depend on the fish species that are found in fresh melting waters of a glacier. I’d love to hear, from your perspective, how has the landscape in the Yukon, where you’ve done a lot of research over years and decades, changed from when you first visited it? The five warmest years in the ocean in the last 70 years have been 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015. If it drops below 90 percent, that’s where we start to set off alarm bells and can take action to prevent crossing a tipping point that could lead to species extinction and cause a collapse of the ecosystem. Just recently, a study came out that modern plankton look so different than they did historically. For more than 30 years, Dr. Hik has been studying plant and animal populations and how they interact with each other as well as their environment. There, he’s an Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science as well as a Professor of Biological Sciences. Do you see, from your own experience and work in the Yukon, animal species adapting like this, that you’ve seen firsthand? Cool-weather animals, put on your running shoes. But it’s a sort of intrinsic loss of beautiful things in nature that we will start to notice. They now have thinner shells because of the warming ocean. Those are important changes. In my own work, I focused on ecological interactions, but I can’t avoid thinking about the physical parts of those environments, particularly snow and ice, and how species are affected by changes that are occurring in the cryosphere. The world's rapidly melting glaciers has disastrous consequences on the animals that rely on them for survival. There’s other species that have been around for a very long time. So, in a sense, when glaciers melt, that creates new ground that can be occupied by plants and ultimately by animals. He points to Denmark as an example: This uniformly flat region doesn't host a single endemic mammal, bird, or amphibian. So, the cryosphere is the frozen part of the natural environment. Those same areas today host very few endemic mammals, birds, or amphibians—species that stick to one spot and one spot only, he and colleagues report online today in Science. So, for example, about 20 percent of the surface area of those glaciers has been lost in the last 50 years, and it’s highly visible. AAAS is a partner of HINARI, AGORA, OARE, CHORUS, CLOCKSS, CrossRef and COUNTER. And the more we understand of that larger context–historical, and present and future–I think the more attentive we can be to make sure that we don’t lose them in the longterm. So, we’re on that trajectory, and this is why there’s such an urgency to try to stabilize carbon emissions as quickly as possible within this decade to prevent the most dangerous warming from occurring. And we set a limit of 90 percent of the total population that would exist in a pristine version of that habitat that’s sort of free of disturbance and human activity. So, that’s outside of the entire time that our genus has been on the planet, and for many other species, while they might’ve been around for a long period of time, they’ve slowly–over the last millions or hundreds of thousands of years–adapted to a set of conditions that are typical of what we see now. Just four years ago, we had one of those big rivers that’s fed by the Kaskawulsh Glacier essentially divert from the Arctic Basin into the Pacific Basin. Daniel Strain is a writer living in Washington, D.C. © 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Since glaciers are melting, the habitat of polar bears, walruses, arctic foxes, and other arctic animals are being destroyed, leading to theses animals’ extinction. "The melt rates of glaciers depend critically on the temperature of the ocean they are in contact with. But if rains dry up at the same time that temperatures increase, moisture-loving amphibians would need to move even faster to survive. 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Coursera [00:20:06]: To keep learning from Dr. David Hik, go to Coursera.org today to enroll for free in his course Mountains 101. The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and, in the longer term, the level of the oceans. Today, the main reason glaciers have begun to melt is because of human activity. And I do two lessons on mountain biodiversity, focused on plants and the animals, and then we talk about the future of mountains and what some of the consequences of changes will be and what some of the options are for trying to preserve these unique places as well. Brody Sandel (map); Dennis Pedersen (photo), Those same areas today host very few endemic mammals, birds, or amphibians, Heat is killing more people than ever. Forty percent of its productive land is projected to be lost with sea-level rise by mid-century. There are a lot of living organisms that rely mainly on glaciers for continued existence. And that’s led globally to an increase of 1.1 degrees. As you study glaciers melting, do you specifically look at that one issue? So, shrews and pikas, lace up those tennis shoes. So, we really need to look at the commitments that the international community has made and find actions that will reduce those emissions–and try to stay within that safe space, where we won’t see a loss of glaciers, or we won’t see a loss of biodiversity or natural ecosystems. The melting of glaciers and loss of snow has a cascading effect … But how will that impact the world’s ecosystems? Scientists had long suspected that some local animals might not be able to outrun climate change, but researchers haven't yet been able to prove the hypothesis, says Loarie, who was not involved in this study: "It's just wonderful to see empirical evidence that backs this up. If I took you there ten years ago, and I took you there this year, one of the very first things you’d notice when you looked up at those hillsides is that the treeline and the shrubs seem more dense, and they’re moving upslope. Check out the effects of melting glaciers … Thwaites Glacier, also known as the "doomsday glacier", is reported to be melting quicker than previously thought - scientists are now trying to find out why. Dr. David Hik is an Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science as well as a Professor of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University. A recent study he did found that 80 percent of the glaciers in Alberta and British Columbia could melt in the next 50 years. By Daniel Strain Oct. 6, 2011 , 2:00 PM. ", The animals' fates may have come down to speed, Sandel adds. It’s snow, it’s ice, and it’s permafrost or frozen ground. The Southwest Yukon is home to wild forests and big mountain peaks–the largest ice fields outside of the polar regions. The findings highlight the importance of giving animals enough room to move freely in the face of future climate change, researchers say. We’ll start to eventually notice that there aren’t any rhinoceros or elephants or large cats in parts of Africa. As the world warms, many species will once again be forced to flee, says Scott Loarie, a biogeographer at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who coauthored the 2009 study. learn more about the topics he can speak to. ___________________________________________________________________________. And that has huge impacts on water that feeds the largest rivers in the world. So, every part of the world will be affected, and as a result, that just emphasizes to me that this is a global issue that needs a global response. And I’ve been studying those environments for all of that time. Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online. For more than 30 years, Dr. Hik has been studying mountain regions and has seen firsthand the impact climate change has had. Dr. David Hik [00:12:22]: Right? thus causing negative effects to earth such as the polar ice melting, the sea level rising, melting glaciers, agriculture. Dr. David Hik [00:16:06]: So, biodiversity is a term that we use to generally describe the number of species that live in a particular area, and once we decide what species live in a place, that becomes our inventory of the health of a particular environment. Flying mammals also survived more on average: "If we split mammals into bats and nonflying mammals, bats behave kind of like the birds.". That means the surface is melting, and they’re getting thinner and smaller. Dr. David Hik [00:07:24] : Well, I think the increase in alternative energy sources–so solar, wind, geothermal–those are being implemented much more rapidly than was initially predicted and could certainly replace a large part of the fossil fuel consumption. One bear lost close to 44 pounds, including her lean muscle, in 10 days. Mountain caribou in the Rocky Mountains have been in decline for a long period of time, partly from habitat loss or habitat change, partly from predation by wolves and cougars and other predators. Coursera [00:07:10]: Can you talk through some of those ideas that you see as a good solution and way to drastically reduce carbon emissions so that we can stop this rise of the climate, which results in the melting of glaciers? Global warming can affect sea levels , coastlines , ocean acidification , ocean currents , seawater , sea surface temperatures , [1] tides , the sea floor , weather , and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry; all of these affect the functioning of a society . And we work in a social environment, and we work with a community that lives in those places and experience firsthand the changes that occur as a result of warming or other disturbances. Such changes in stream habitat may also adversely impact native trout and other keystone salmon species. Or if you’re a member of the press, set up an interview with Dr. David Hik or learn more about the topics he can speak to. That’s leading to continued melting of glaciers in the Arctic and around the world. Coursera [00:02:44]: And of course you’re a scientist, so you’ve got that eagle eye to really be noticing these things. Some areas will be more vulnerable than others. So, the forest there is predominantly white spruce, and the bark beetle killed about 350,000 hectors of the forest in that part the Yukon–and left all of these standing dead trees. And that leads to the potential for a greater forest fire risk. They experience these changes firsthand. Much of his work has been in mountain regions, specifically the Yukon. Some animals require the cool temperatures for their day to day activities like the blue bear. There’s other things besides climate change, but climate change tends to exacerbate all of those other factors. Because of melting sea ice, ... Measurements showed those animals lost 10 percent or more of their body mass. In an interconnected world, we may all suffer impacts caused by melting ice elsewhere, and settlements may be affected by sea level rises in diverse and different ways. Dr. David Hik [00:06:31]: Well, it does. There’s a variety of species that I think I’m concerned about, but I think a lot of species will find ways to surprise us. For example, the melting of glaciers will affect drinking supplies of the millions who rely on meltwater rivers. Flee the melt. Melting glaciers also threaten the food supply. And the oceans are getting warmer. The initial effect on individuals and on the world will be relatively small, but the cumulative effect of that overtime is going to be huge. Dr. David Hik [00:10:54]: Yeah. And a lot of the work that I’ve been focusing on looks at species interactions so herbivores that eat plants or pollinators that rely on a variety of different species. The opposite is true for mountainous regions. And 20 million people that live in the coastal areas of Bangladesh are already affected by salinity and drinking water and contamination of groundwater. Through his research in that area, he’s seen firsthand the impact of climate change and has been studying the long-term effects of a warming planet. Take the American pika, which lives along mountains in the western United States: To get to cooler weather, all these squeaky critters need to do is climb a few hundred meters uphill. And we see the projections are at the current rate that greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere. Coursera [00:08:16]: And as you’re having these conversations and thinking about these issues often, do you personally hold out hope that these large changes and drastic things that need to happen to slow the rate of climate change will happen in time before that point of no return? Many of them, the traditional homes of First Nation People in Northwestern Canada. So, we can do something like create a biodiversity intactness index. We expect to see a two-degree warming with about 450 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere. Coursera [00:10:24]: And as we’re talking about ways that we as humans can adapt, I know we’re already starting to see how the world around us is already adapting plants, animals, et cetera. As glaciers and the giant ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica melt, they add more water into the ocean, which causes sea level to rise. ... [Melting glaciers] will affect … Dr. David Hik [00:04:55]: Well, globally, glaciers are melting quite rapidly. So, in a sense, when glaciers melt, that creates new ground that can be occupied by plants and ultimately by animals. Some 1.3 billion rely on water flowing from the mountains, which could dry up … Glacial Melting Put Animals on the Run. All the issues and key topics including global warming, greenhouse effect, ozone, kyoto, politics and the environment. For other species, they might be fine, and other species will simply move. The negative effects of global warming have caused sea levels to rise. The melting of Antarctic ice sheets is one of the most visceral consequences of climate change, but the full extent of their impact on the cycle remains … And that leads to more health problems, like an increase in diarrhea outbreaks. © 2020 Coursera Inc. All rights reserved. And I think that’s the risk that we’re trying to mitigate is how much of a decline in species can we see in a particular place without losing the integrity of that system as a whole? Melting Glaciers and the Impact on Terrestrial Animals What is a melting glacier? It can also affect animal and plans that depend on melt-water from glaciers, while in the longer term it can cause ocean levels to rise. Another big disturbance in the 1990s and early part of the 2000s was a huge outbreak of spruce bark beetle. Rising sea levels contribute to warmer global temperatures, changing what kinds of crops farmers can grow. How fast species need to move may depend on how hilly their homes are, Sandel suggests. A new study of historic climate patterns suggests that, as our current world warms, slower-moving critters may go extinct in far greater numbers than their speedier counterparts. Why does it matter? And I think whether it’s industrial ports, like where I live in Vancouver or a place like Miami that’s sitting right on the limits of where the sea level is, or Bangladesh–one of the most densely populated countries in the world lives in a very low lying part of Asia. Dr. David Hik [00:08:33]: You know, if you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have been a little more despondent, but I’m increasingly optimistic that we can bend the emissions curve. Many people know it, probably from the Klondike Gold Rush and the sort of colorful history of what happened at the end of the 1800s. Glaciers are melting because the temperature across the globe has gone upward, helping the cause of ice glaciers melting faster than That’s a territory in Northwest Canada, near Alaska. For instance, amphibians, the "tortoises" in this tortoise-and-a-hare race against climate change, seemed to die off much more than fast-moving animals, the hares, such as many birds. The biggest and most notable impact of these glaciers melting is in the rise of sea level. Does it all come back to reducing carbon emissions? They probably have survived warm periods and cold periods and Refugio in mountains, and they’re still there. And the feedback that then has on global temperatures is equilibrating somewhere above 450, 550 parts per million, which could lead to warming of two and a half degrees by the end of this century. Now have thinner shells because of the polar ice melting, do you know, from your or! From one habitat to the world 's rapidly melting glaciers Risks Person Person Intro! Of North America and Europe, agriculture species or diseases or parasites look at individual,. 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