The biodiversity of Arctic and Antarctic regions is being affected in different ways by global warming, new research shows.
Global warming affects the polar regions more acutely than other areas of the planet. In the Arctic this has been shown to affect larger predatory species, such as the polar bear and whales. This has caused a phenomenon known as a “trophic cascade”, which poses a threat to ecosystems due to changes to predator species affecting species lower in the food web.
The Antarctic, which has a larger number of prey species, has seen animals lower in the food web affected, including a marked decrease in Antarctic krill numbers.
Read more at The University of Western Australia