#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Climate changes, which lead to a shift of warmer bioclimatic zones to the north, are occurring both in Russia and throughout the world. And for many animal species, including in the Arctic, such processes lead to extinction.
“In our country, the line of Arctic ice, tundra, and deciduous forest zones are retreating to the polar latitudes. At the same time, the southern regions of Russia are undergoing aridization – a decrease in moisture and desertification. We see these changes both from scientific monitoring data and firsthand at the everyday level. Naturally, such phenomena contribute to the migration of many species of plants and animals from their usual habitats to new territories, where the conditions for their living are optimal”, said Anna Kurbatova, associate professor at the RUDN’s Ecology Institute, candidate of biological sciences, in a conversation with Izvestia.
According to her, for many species such processes lead to extinction. At the same time, it is problematic to say how quickly the above processes occur from the point of view of human perception, since the changes are not linear and depend on many factors.
“But it should be stated that on the scale of the entire biosphere, changes are happening very quickly”, the ecologist emphasized.
Earlier, a group of scientists said that global warming threatens most polar bear populations in the Arctic, since due to the rapid melting of ice, predators are deprived of the opportunity to lead their usual way of life. Lack of access to food leads to the fact that polar predators die of hunger, losing two kilograms of weight per day. The wild reindeer population is also on the verge of extinction. Scientists say that the process of disappearing ice in high latitudes is accelerating every year and threatening the well-being of the animals that live there.
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Text: Elena Popova, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov
