rojected to become a progressively more significant threat in the coming decades. Loss of arctic sea threatens biodiversity across an entire biome and beyond.” (Shah, 2014) Performance curves can be used to determine the ranges within which a species can survive, grow and reproduce respectively. Such is the case in the arctic environments, with the rise in temperatures and ocean levels disabling certain animals from feeding and reproducing effectively. For example, constantly melting and freezing ice conditions effect the living circumstances of both seals and polar bears as “normally, ringed seal pups are born under snow drifts [which] the polar bears can dig through with relative ease. But [recently], seals appeared to be pupping under the ice because of altered sea ice conditions.” (Allsopp et all, 2012). This situation allowed the seals to find new conditions to birth their children (favouring them), whereas the polar bears (at a disadvantage) now work harder to reach their prey. Figure 1.3 displays the conditions the polar bears are currently facing. In this case we see how the polar bears have reduced energy efficiency as a result of abnormal hunting behaviours, as well as reduced availability of prey, and increasing competition amongst existing individuals of the population. Furthermore, melting ice also has an effect on denning strategies of pregnant polar bears. Warming conditions result in, changes in the degree consolidation of the ice making it less suitable for denning, instigating the pregnant bears to shift to land masses before birthing. Switching to land, however, does not solve the problem as this change in itself has its own repercussions some of which are mentioned by Fischbach et al, “The females must be able to walk on the ice or swim to the land to reach the denning area. However, because the distance in autumn between the southern edge of the pack ice and the coastal areas is increasing with climate change, this distance may become too great for the pregnant females to cross” (Fischbach et al, 2007). Not only polar bears but walruses have also experienced a drastic decrease in population size as a result of increasing sea levels and rising temperatures. As a result of shrinking ice, walruses have lost a major portion of their habitat and thus have also been added to the list of endangered species since 2011. These findings show that there is no “winning” in this situation and these arctic animals are finding very hard not only to reproduce but also just to survive.

Figure 1.3 Shows the effects altering sea ice conditions have on the availability of food for the polar bears. The conditions cause the bear top to spend more energy in trying to find food therefore its weak appearance.

Ocean Acidification