Publications by authors named "Brooke A Biddlecombe"
Article Synopsis
- Polar bears' life is closely linked to sea ice and their prey in the Arctic, which is changing due to climate warming and leading to more diseases in these bears.
- A study of 180 Beaufort Sea polar bears found that 27.2% tested positive for the pathogen Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, which is known to infect both domestic and wild animals.
- Factors like increased predation on ringed seals and negative winter Arctic Oscillation years were associated with higher exposure to this pathogen, suggesting that changes in the seal population affect polar bears' health.
Habitat fragmentation occurs when continuous habitat gets broken up as a result of ecosystem change. While commonly studied in terrestrial ecosystems, Arctic sea ice ecosystems also experience fragmentation, but are rarely studied in this context. Most fragmentation analyses are conducted using patch-based metrics, which are potentially less suitable for sea ice that has gradual changes between sea ice cover, than distinct "long-term" patches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF