Rudolph is coping with climate change better than feared—for now
Published Date: 12/19/2022
Source: phys.org
The North Pole is not what it once was. The Arctic is the area on the globe where temperatures are rising the fastest. On Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, this entails extended periods of mild weather. Precipitation comes as rain, snow melts, and then freezes again in colder periods. These alternations between hot and cold result in the ground being covered in ice. That is a problem for the Svalbard reindeer: when ice covers the ground, food becomes unavailable.