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Hello puffins, goodbye belugas: changing Arctic fjord hints at our climate future

Stunning images show an ecosystem’s upheaval as it warms at an alarming pace.
  1. Freda Kreier
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Geir Wing Gabrielsen studying plastic ingestion by Northern Fulmar birds (Fulmarus glacialis) in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard.

Ecotoxicologist Geir Wing Gabrielsen catches a fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in 2021 as part of a study on microplastics in the birds. Credit: Felix Tulatz

Far north of the Arctic Circle lies a fjord on the front lines of climate change. Geir Wing Gabrielsen has been visiting this inlet, located on the northwest side of the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, since 1981, when he first came to study the behaviour of Arctic birds. It used to be that each year when the ecotoxicologist would arrive in May or June — springtime in Svalbard — he could count on one thing: that the fjord would still be locked in ice.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01128-y

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