Bering Sea is warming, and wildlife is at risk

Rising temperatures in the Bering Sea are causing long-term changes in the ecology of the local wildlife, scientists have found.

The northern part of the Bering Sea is now becoming vulnerable to invasion by species from warmer, southern seas which could severely affect local wildlife.

American and Canadian scientists have said that the northern Bering Sea's sea ducks, gray whales, bearded seals and walruses is critically dependent on bottom-dwelling organisms that thrive in cold temperatures.

A change from Arctic to sub-Arctic conditions is under way which is producing the sort of temperatures and conditions that favour more southerly species.

"We're seeing that a change in the physical conditions is driving a change in the ecosystems," said Jackie Grebmeier, a researcher at the University of Tennessee and one of the co-authors of the study published in the journal Science. "What we are seeing is a change in the boundary between the sub-Arctic and the Arctic ecosystem. The potential is real for an ecosystem shift that will be felt father north," he said.

James Overland, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, said the changesare tied to the nature of the sea ice, which is melting.Shifts in fish populations have also been observed, including the appearance farther north of juvenile pink salmon in rivers that drain into the Arctic Ocean.

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