How Animals Are Affected by Climate Change – a Zoosemiotic Investigation of Polar Bears and Ringed Seals on Svalbard
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How Animals are Affected by Climate Change – A Zoosemiotic Investigation of Polar Bears and Ringed Seals on Svalbard Ida Tingvik Bertelsen Master’s thesis in Energy, Environment and Society University of Stavanger Spring 2019 i UNIVERSITY OF STAVANGER MASTER DEGREE IN Energy, Environment and Society MASTER THESIS CANDIDATE NUMBER: 4037 SEMESTER: Spring 2019 AUTHOR: Ida Tingvik Bertelsen SUPERVISOR: Professor Morten Tønnessen MASTER THESIS TITLE: How Animals are Affected by Climate Change - A Zoosemiotic Investigation of Polar Bears and Ringed Seals on Svalbard SUBJECT WORDS/KEY WORDS: Arctic; Svalbard; Polar bear; Ringed seal; Climate change; Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Zoosemiotics; Umwelt; Functional cycle; Phenomenal fields; Umwelt transition; Ontological map; The tripartite umwelt model PAGE NUMBER: 96 STAVANGER ………………………………………………………. DATE/YEAR i Abstract The purpose of the thesis is to examine the affect climate change has on polar bears and ringed seals subjective world. Climate change is affecting the world negatively in many ways. Biodiversity is essential for all life on our planet and to achieve a sustainable development. There has already been talk about a possible sixth mass extinction if we keep treating our planet like we do today. Despite not having the most important role in the ecosystem, polar bears have become a symbol not only for Arctic but for climate change globally – affecting our understanding of climate change and its effect on biodiversity and thus the decisions taken in among policy and conservation work. Polar bears and ringed seals as other arctic mammals are also driven to the edge of their natural habitat, having no place to “run”. The situation on Svalbard is unique as it is one of the places on planet earth where climate change is most significant as it happens more than twice as fast as the rest of the world. This thesis provides a zoosemiotics analysis of the effect of climate change on polar bears and ringed seals in Svalbard. Zoosemiotics and Umwelt theory enables us to investigate the subjective world of polar bears and ringed seals, how they communicate, and how climate change is changing their relationship. It gives a holistic approach to the challenges faced by polar bears and ringed seals as it connect the changes related to biology, but also examine how human representation of polar bears affect our perception which ultimately can affect what actions we take when it comes to climate change and consequently affect polar bears and other species subjective world. Keywords: Arctic; Svalbard; Polar bear; Ringed seal; Climate change; Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Zoosemiotics; Umwelt; Functional cycle; Phenomenal fields; Umwelt transition; Ontological map; The tripartite umwelt model Front page picture: taken by wildlife photographer Roie Galitz on Svalbard, showing a polar bear that has just caught a ringed seal. The picture is used with permission from the photographer for this master thesis (©Roie Galitz 2019). i Acknowledgement I would first like to thank my supervisor Professor Morten Tønnessen for inspiration and helpful comments. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dag Vongraven, Heli Routti and Kit Kovacs from the Norwegian Polar Institute for using their free time to participate in interviews, giving me much interesting facts that were of great help for my thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for supporting me through the process. Without you this would not been possible. ii Table of Content Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. v Glossary .................................................................................................................................... vi 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Problem and Research questions .............................................................................. 3 1.2 Structure of Thesis .................................................................................................... 5 2.0 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Individual semi-structured interviews ...................................................................... 8 2.3 Validity and Reliability .......................................................................................... 10 3.0 Background ....................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 Climate Change ...................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Biodiversity ............................................................................................................ 13 3.3 Svalbard and Climate Change ................................................................................ 15 3.4 Polar Bears and Ringed Seals ................................................................................. 22 3.5 Pollution ................................................................................................................. 29 3.6 Tourism ................................................................................................................... 32 4.0 Theory ............................................................................................................................... 36 4.1 Zoosemiotics .......................................................................................................... 36 4.2 Umwelt theory ........................................................................................................ 38 4.2.1 Functional cycle .................................................................................... 39 4.2.2 Phenomenal fields, Umwelt transition and Ontological map ............... 41 4.2.3 The tripartite umwelt model ................................................................. 44 5.0 Analysis and Discussion ................................................................................................... 46 5.1 Functional cycle – Polar bear, Ringed seal and Human ......................................... 46 5.2 Polar bears and Ringed seals Umwelten and Umwelt transition ............................ 50 5.3 Why are polar bears and ringed seals important? ................................................... 57 5.4 Representation of the polar bear ............................................................................. 59 iii 6.0 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 63 7.0 References ....................................................................................................................... 68 8.0 Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 79 Appendix 1: Information Letter (Norwegian) .............................................................. 79 Appendix 2: Information Letter (English) .................................................................... 82 Appendix 3: Interview Guide ....................................................................................... 85 Appendix 4: NSD’s Assessment .................................................................................. 87 List of Figures Figure 1: The Great Acceleration ............................................................................................ 12 Figure 2: Temperature deviations globally and at Svalbard Airport ....................................... 16 Figure 3: Temperature month by month from 1961-2019 at Svalbard Airport ....................... 17 Figure 4: Sea ice in the Barents Sea in April .......................................................................... 18 Figure 5: Sea ice in the Barents Sea in September .................................................................. 19 Figure 6: Climate Change Svalbard ........................................................................................ 20 Figure 7: The important role of tidewater glaciers for marine mammals .............................. 28 Figure 8: Arctic Food Web ...................................................................................................... 30 Figure 9: The relationship between tourism and climate change ............................................ 34 Figure 10: Functional cycle ..................................................................................................... 39 Figure 11: Phenomenal fields .................................................................................................. 42 Figure 12: Ontological map ..................................................................................................... 43 Figure 13: