...because sometimes 140 characters just isn't enough.
So while researching what my potential advisers are studying, I started reading about climate change effect on walrus. I'm interested in ice associated seals and climate change. I wonder if I could study under her, but not study walruses. It's the same general idea.
Anyway! The articles I've read are what I expect, climate change and warming waters are bad. The ice retreats and the walrus don't have the areas to congregate like they need. They aren't long distance swimmers or deep divers, they need ice to rest on and dive in shallower water. The ice retreats, and where it is left the water is too deep for the walrus to dive. Males generally make longer swims to shores, but females and calves stay on ice. Now more females and calves make the journey to the shore, but it's obviously hard on calves. They also end up congregating in larger numbers than normal, and so there are more casualties from stampedes to water. Calves are especially susceptible to injury or death in this. There is also a lot of calf abandonment and additional physiological stress. So on and so forth. Bad for walruses.
So. I find a recent article talking about how global warming is helping the walrus! Wow, all that melting ice sure helps because it's exposing all sorts of good stuff for the walrus to eat. Now, maybe some of that is true. Perhaps some of the melting ice actually did free up some new places to eat. But really? Something that's been beat to death by research articles as being bad is now something that is helpful? Perhaps they mean that global warming has helped the walrus population from it's decline after whaling, but they don't necessarily mean that global warming continues to be helpful. I might give benefit of the doubt. But I can just imagine people using that as a case for not having to worry about how climate change affects ice associated marine mammals. Bah.
Especially since the whole point of the article was that global warming is freeing up new places for walruses to eat! No. Really. It's making it so they are running out of places to eat.
(I need marine mammal icons. More marine biology icons in general... hrm.)
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