Shifting Bird Distribution Indicates a Changing Arctic. Shifts in the distribution of Spectacled Eiders, a predatory bird at the top of the Bering Sea's benthic food web, indicate possible changes in the Arctic's marine ecosystem, according to new research in The Condor: Ornithological Applications. Matt Sexson of the USGS Alaska Science Center and his colleagues compared recent satellite telemetry data from molting eiders with data from the mid-1990s. They found that in two of the species' four primary molting areas, the birds have shifted their range significantly in the intervening decades, and the researchers interpret this as an indicator of ecosystem change-eiders go where their prey is, and their movements could indicate big changes in the community of bottom-dwelling, cold-water-dependent invertebrates they eat. Phy.org

 

Potentially Toxic Russian Rocket Debris Set to Land in Canada's Arctic. Aircraft are being warned to steer clear of an area near Canada's northerly Ellesmere Island where the remains of a modified Russian ballistic missile are set to crash into the Arctic this weekend - space debris that may be laden with highly toxic rocket fuel. Critics are asking who will take responsibility for cleaning up a sensitive maritime ecosystem of what could be extremely poisonous hydrazine from a missile that the Russians will use to boost a satellite into orbit from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, 800 kilometers north of Moscow. The Globe and Mail

 

As Arctic Ocean Gets Spicier, Hunting May Be More Dangerous. The Arctic Ocean is getting spicier. A new study published in the Journal of Physical Oceanography suggests that rising temperatures in the far north could result in spicier water, or warmer water whose density is more affected by temperature than salinity. This could make marine mammal hunting off Alaska's coast more dangerous. Mary-Louise Timmermans is a professor and oceanographer at Yale University. She studies how ocean circulation affects sea ice in the Arctic. KTOO

 

Scientists Argue Against LNG Export Permit. The Petronas-backed Pacific NorthWest LNG project in British Columbia, Canada responded Tuesday to allegations by climate scientists that its facility would lead to "significant adverse environmental effects from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions... PNW LNG would be one of the single largest point source emitters in Canada. When upstream emissions are added to facility emissions, the project would add between 18.5 and 22.5 percent to British Columbia's total GHG emissions," the group of 90 scientists wrote in an open letter to Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. "This would make it virtually impossible for BC to meet its GHG emission reduction targets, and would undermine Canada's international climate change commitments." Maritime Executive