Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Decadal Bering Sea Seascape Change: Consequences For Pacific Walruses And Indigenous Hunters, G. Carleton Ray, Gary L. Hufford, James E. Overland, Igor Krupnik, Jerry Mccormick-Ray, Karen Frey, Elizabeth Labunski

Geography

The most signifi cant factors currently affecting the Pacifi c walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) population are climate change and consequent changes in sea-ice morphology and dynamics. This paper integrates recent physical sea-ice change in the Bering Sea with biological and ecological conditions of walruses in their winter-spring reproductive habitat. Historically, walrus in winter-spring depended on a critical mass of sea-ice habitat to optimize social networking, reproductive fi tness, feeding behavior, migration, and energetic effi ciency. During 2003-2013, our cross-disciplinary, multiscale analysis from shipboard observations, satellite imagery, and ice-fl oe tracking, reinforced by information from indigenous subsistence hunters, documented change of …