The impact of changing climate on reproduction of Northwest Atlantic harp seals, Pagophilus groenlandicus.

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

Climate related declines in sea ice seriously impact species such as the Northwest Atlantic harp seal that rely on ice for reproduction and feeding. Harps feed and give birth on ice along the southern edge of the seasonal pack ice - an area that is rapidly changing due to global warming. Although climate change has been shown to affect harp seals directly through increased mortality of young, it may also impact indirectly through changes in prey and subsequent reproductive rates. Late term pregnancy rates were estimated from samples collected between 1954 and 2014 off Newfoundland, Canada. Since the early 1980s, pregnancy rates declined while inter-annual variability increased with late term pregnancy rates among mature females falling to