Dramatic changes, such as sea ice loss, are projected to occur in Arctic ecosystems over the next century. Understanding how the Arctic’s living resources, including its vertebrate species, are responding to these changes is essential in order to develop effective conservation and adaptation strategies. Arctic species that are adapted to these extreme environments are expected to be displaced, in part, by the encroachment of more southerly specie...

The Arctic plays host to a vast array of biodiversity, including many globally significant populations. Included among these are more than half of the world´s shorebird species, 80% of the global goose populations, several million reindeer and caribou, and many unique mammals, such as the polar bear. During the short summer breeding season, 279 species of birds arrive from as far away as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America to ...

Nucleotide diversity estimates based on the complete sequences of mitochondrial genome in the collared lemming indicate how past climate has structured the genetic component of biodiversity. Lower diversity in regions (green) affected by the northward forest expansion during the Holocene warm climatic events compared to Western Beringia, where there was no forest expansion, suggests a reduction of effective size due to regional range contracti...