Articles | Volume 10, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2027-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2027-2016
Research article
 | 
14 Sep 2016
Research article |  | 14 Sep 2016

Sea-ice indicators of polar bear habitat

Harry L. Stern and Kristin L. Laidre

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AR by Harry Stern on behalf of the Authors (18 Aug 2016)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (24 Aug 2016) by Christian Haas
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Short summary
Polar bears, found in 19 distinct regions of the Arctic, depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting. Using satellite data of sea ice for the period 1979–2014, we found that the date of sea-ice retreat in spring is arriving weeks earlier, and the date of sea-ice advance in fall is arriving weeks later, in all 19 regions. We calculated several other measures of sea ice, which all show declines. These measures were designed to be useful for management agencies to assess polar bear habitat.