A team of scientists led by researchers from the German Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) has found out that polar bears evolved as early as some 600,000 years ago. The study, published in the current issue of the journal “Science”, ( Nuclear Genomic Sequences Reveal that Polar Bears Are an Old and Distinct Bear Lineage, Hailer, F. et.al) says the white giants are thus five times older than previously realised.

Why do we need to know this apart from pure scientific curiosity?  Because knowing when polar bears evolved as a genetically distinct species, different from brown bears, could help us understand what is going to happen to the polar bears if the planet keeps heating up. You can read more about how the scientists came to their conclusions and what implications they could have here.

 

 

A report released by Cambridge University suggests that the treeline in the Arctic is not moving northwards as fast as earlier studies have predicted. The report, published by Gareth Rees from the University’s Scott Polar Research Institute says the relationship between climate change and trees is more complex than previously thought.

Rees says the treeline is clearly moving north on average, but that he has not found evidence confirming other estimates that the treeline is moving north at as much as two kilometres a year. He says 100 metres per year is more realistic.

The study involves researchers in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska and Scandinavia.

More in Environmental Research Letters or in a summary on the Alaska Dispatch

 

Living conditions have changed considerably over the last few decades for sea birds who live or breed in the Arctic region.

Ornithologist George Divoky has found that his monitoring of black guillemots on the Arctic Cooper Island off the coast of Barrow, Alaska over the last four decades has turned into observation of the rapidly changing climate in the high north.

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Vulnerable Treasure: Icebergs in Disko Bay, Greenland

Vulnerable Treasure: Chukchi Sea, Alaska

There was plenty of icy news awaiting me when I got back from my spring break. One of the items was entitled “On thin ice: vulnerable Arctic treasures identified”.

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Beyond penguins and polar bears is a website you have to look at for the pictures alone – as well as understandable information on polar issues.
It’s actually an educational website for teachers. I found out about it because it has just won a science prize for online education SPORE
The idea is to use the appeal of penguins and polar bears to get kids interested in science. But there ‘s a lot of background on there for us adults as well.