Global warming is causing the ice caps to melt. What is the most likely effect on northern wildlife?

Sea-level rise, which is brought on by the surplus melt water on the polar ice caps, is one of the main causes of many of the current concerns. Sea-level rise, which accelerates and causes climate change, has numerous effects on our planet's natural and human environments.

Many species depend on the presence of ice in the Arctic, including polar bears, whose existence is essential to their way of life. As the ice melts, these animals will either have to move further north in search of ice or face extinction.

Water and ice caps melting have a profound effect on weather patterns; as a result, precipitation has recently moved further north due to global warming, falling more as rain than snow. This has made it difficult for some animals, like muskrats, to find food as the rain freezes over the ground. Wolves, in particular, have to follow their prey and food, so they have to move north as well.

This has led to an increase in the number of starving animals, many of which are unable to sustain their young or their unborn offspring, and many of which see their young perish.

This puts more pressure on the northern ecosystems as it tries to support the large numbers of organisms moving into smaller areas in an attempt to survive, which will eventually lead to many of the northern organisms going extinct, unless they adapt. As temperatures rise, many of these organisms also come into contact and competition with organisms that survived more south to them and have moved up north as temperatures rise.

I hope this is useful.

-Charlie

The most likely effect on northern wildlife due to melting ice caps from global warming is habitat loss, affecting species dependent on ice-covered regions.