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New research shows a single year of warmer-than-average Arctic temperatures can cause malnutrition in Arctic seals, intensifying risks to Inuit food security and northern ecosystems already under pressure from environmental toxins, warn 天美mv天美 researchers.

The 天美mv天美 study found Arctic ringed seals are struggling to clear persistent contaminants and banned pesticides from their bodies 鈥� a long鈥憈erm health risk made worse when climate鈥慸riven changes to sea ice and temperatures limit their access to nutrient-rich food.

鈥淩inged seals are a crucial link between invertebrates, fish and apex predators, and they are a cornerstone of northern food systems,鈥� says Tanya Brown, marine mammal ecotoxicologist and senior study author. 鈥淲e鈥檝e found that warmer conditions can change what they feed on, which changes their contaminant exposure, and that can affect their overall health and survival.鈥�

Researchers also found that blood and blubber samples taken in 2010, an abnormally warm year with low Arctic sea ice, showed signs of malnutrition including a thinner blubber layer and depleted fatty acids. 

鈥淲e saw that just one year of unusually warm temperatures and reduced ice is enough to change what these seals are eating and how their bodies process nutrients,鈥� says Ana茂s Remili, postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study. 

Climate change may worsen contaminant risks

Persistent contaminants such as PCBs, DDTs and chlordane remain in Arctic ecosystems for decades because they break down slowly and travel long distances by air and water. They are also lipophilic 鈥� or 鈥渇at鈥憀oving鈥� 鈥� meaning marine mammals like seals store them in their blubber.  

鈥淭hinner, nutritionally stressed seals redistribute the contaminants they had stored in their blubber back into the bloodstream, which then circulates through their entire system,鈥� Remili explains. 鈥淓ven though our 2011 samples showed the seals generally rebounded from the malnutrition, we know that any future nutritional stress may compound the impacts of longer-term damage from oxidative stress.鈥�

Rapid sea鈥慽ce loss and shifting marine food webs are already reshaping what and where seals eat; climate鈥慸riven changes in ocean currents could flush more global pollutants into Arctic regions, she says.  

Communities along the Labrador coast have long raised questions about how contaminants and warming conditions affect both the animals and the people who rely on them, Brown adds. 鈥淗ealthy seal populations are essential for food security and cultural continuity.鈥�