Birds Die of Starvation on the Coasts of Alaska, Experts Warn Shifts in Food Chain Due to Climate Change

Alaska's coasts are littered with bodies and starving birds. According to experts, changes in the food chain are a result of climate change.

According to a report published on Tuesday by US scientists, dead and dying seabirds gathered along the northern and southern coasts of the Bering and Chukchi seas over the previous six years show how the Arctic's rapidly changing climate is endangering the ecosystems and the ones who live there.

Distressed Birds

Seabirds, such as shearwaters, auklets, and murres, which typically consume krill, plankton, or fish, but seem to have had trouble finding food, have been found to have many emaciated bodies, according to local communities. Scientists estimate that only a small portion of the birds that starved make up large numbers of distressed and dead birds.

Gay Sheffield, a University of Alaska Fairbanks biologist, said that seabird die-offs involving multiple species have occurred around the Bering Strait since 2017. Emaciation, or starvation, is the one thing they all share. Sheffield is a co-author of the report and resides in Nome, Alaska.

She said that seabirds are having difficulty due to ecosystem shifts linked to climate change, which can affect the amount and timing of food available, as well as a virus outbreak and a harmful algal bloom in the area. In addition, their risk endangers human communities because, according to Sheffield, birds are vital to the area's economy and nutritional security.

Arctic Report Card

The information on seabirds is included in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "Arctic Report Card," a yearly report that details changes in a region that is warming more quickly than any other on Earth, CBC News reports.

Don Lyons, a conservation scientist at the Seabird Institute of the National Audubon Society, said that climate change is causing a rapid change in the food chain. In terms of where food is at various times of the year, food is no longer as predictable as it once was. Lyons was not involved in the report.

Food is no longer as consistent throughout the year. Lyons did not contribute to the report. Although seabirds inevitably have some years of scarcity, the report reveals a concerning trend. The tipping point appears to have long since passed, according to Lyons. Events that were once uncommon and rare are now common and frequent under the new regime that is in place today.

Notable Differences

The report found that the Arctic's annual surface air temperatures in the previous year were the sixth warmest since records have been kept since 1900. And satellite data showed that during the summer of last year, a sizable portion of the area close to the North Pole was virtually free of sea ice.

Walt Meier, a University of Colorado Boulder sea ice expert, said that the extent of the sea ice was much less than the long-term average. Meier is a co-author of the report.

He said that the most notable observation was that there were numerous open-water areas near the North Pole during the summer, which used to be very uncommon. Within a few hundred kilometers of the North Pole, several kilometers have little to no ice.

Peter Marra, a Georgetown University conservation biologist, said that the Arctic is undergoing such quick and significant changes. The report did not include Marra.

According to Marra, seabirds are like metaphorical canaries in the coal mine when it comes to revealing broader ecosystem changes. She also stressed the importance of improving the monitoring of these sentinel populations, AP News reports.