''Boreogadus saida'', known as the polar cod or as the Arctic cod, is a fish of the cod

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Gadidae The Gadidae are a family of marine fish, included in the order Gadiformes, known as the cods, codfishes, or true cods. It contains several commercially important fishes, including the cod, haddock, whiting, and pollock. Most gadid species ar ...

, related to the true

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

(genus ''Gadus''). Another fish species for which both the common names Arctic cod and polar cod are used is ''

Arctogadus glacialis ''Arctogadus glacialis'', known also with ambiguous common names Arctic cod and polar cod, is an Arctic species of fish in the cod family Gadidae, related to the true cod (genus ''Gadus''). ''Arctogadus glacialis'' is found in icy water. They gr ...

''.

Description

Arctic cod have slender bodies, deeply forked tails, a projecting mouth, and a small chin

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprini ...

. They have three dorsal fins and two anal fins, which are all separate from each other. The caudal fin is concave, the pectoral fins reach beyond the end of the first dorsal fin, and the pelvic fins are elongated rays. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

is interrupted along the entire length of the fish. They are plainly coloured with brownish spots and a silvery body.

Greenlandic Inuit The Greenlandic Inuit or sometimes simply the Greenlandic are an ethnic group and nation Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous to Greenland, where they constitute the largest ethnic population. They share a common #History, ancestry, ...

fishers have described two morphotypes of Arctic cod, a lighter-colored variety and a darker-colored variety. Arctic cod are frequently misidentified as polar cod (

) during their larval and early juvenile stages. The species can be differentiated through the analysis of

otolith An otolith (, ' ear + , ', a stone), also called otoconium, statolith, or statoconium, is a calcium carbonate structure in the saccule or utricle (ear), utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular system of vertebrates. The saccule ...

s or molecular data. Arctic cod grow to an average length of 25 cm (9.8 in), and a maximum length of .

Geographical distribution

This species is found further north than any other fish (beyond 84°N) with a circumpolar distribution spanning the entire North Polar Basin above

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. More specifically, in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

Chukchi Sea The Chukchi Sea (, ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, ...

Beaufort Sea The Beaufort Sea ( ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alaska, and west of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The sea is named after Sir Francis Beaufort, a Hydrography, hydrographer. T ...

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

Baffin Bay Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; ; ; ), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a s ...

, Greenland Sea,

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with ...

and the Eastern Siberian Sea. Arctic cod occur in almost all

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

and

Subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

marine habitats, ranging from coastal waters, the

mesopelagic zone The mesopelagic zone (Greek μέσον, middle), also known as the middle pelagic or twilight zone, is the part of the pelagic zone that lies between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones. It is defined by light, and begins ...

, the deeper central Arctic Ocean, and under ice. Arctic cod are the most abundant

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer o ...

Arctic species in the Beaufort Sea. Arctic cod exhibit diel vertical migration patterns during winter and spring, but migration is not observed during summer.

Habitat

Early life stages of Arctic cod are found near the surface in both ice-covered and open water; however, adults are found deeper in the water column. In the

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...

, Arctic cod will separate vertically in the water column by size, with younger fish in the upper 100 meters of the water column, and juvenile and immature fish below 200 meters. Arctic cod can also be found in dense schools near glacial fronts and

polynya A polynya () is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian language, Russian (), whic ...

s. Subsurface plumes of freshwater discharged from glaciers create foraging hotspots, aggregating

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

where they are stunned or killed by osmotic shock, making them easy prey for Arctic cod. Greenlandic Inuit fishers have reported the presence of Arctic cod near the Sermilik and Sermeq Avannarleq glaciers, located off the southwestern coast of

Adaptations to Arctic waters

Arctic cod have several adaptations that allow them to function in freezing polar waters where most other species could not. These waters, though incredibly cold, have a lower freezing point due to their high salt content. While Arctic cod do have higher salt concentrations in their bodies compared to fish in warmer waters, this only accounts for half of the decrease in the cod's freezing point. The key adaptation that allow for a decrease in their freezing point lies in their blood: specifically, high molecular mass antifreeze glycoproteins. These special proteins decrease the freezing point of ice, preventing the formation of ice crystals in the blood. This mechanism allows Arctic cod to thrive in freezing waters. Antifreeze glycoproteins first occurred about 5 to 15 million years ago, coinciding with the freezing of the

Antarctic Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

. Arctic cod have antifreeze glycoprotein genes that are similar to other notothenioid Antarctic fish, however, the protein-coding sequences are not identical. This suggests that the ability to produce antifreeze glycoproteins evolved independently in both fish, showing

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...

due to similar cold environments. How exactly these proteins prevent ice formation remains unknown. Arctic cod have unique kidneys that lack glomeruli, structures found in most organisms that filter out toxins from the blood. This adaptation, shared with Antarctic notothenioid fish, help the cod retain vital antifreeze glycoproteins in their blood. It also prevents the fish from experiencing

osmotic stress Osmotic shock or osmotic stress is physiologic dysfunction caused by a sudden change in the solute concentration around a cell, which causes a rapid change in the movement of water across its cell membrane. Under hypertonic conditions - conditi ...

, as the high salt content of the Arctic Oceans draws water out of their bodies.

Keystone species in the Arctic

Arctic cod are a

keystone species A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance. The concept was introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in main ...

in Arctic marine

food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Position in the food web, or trophic level, is used in ecology to broadly classify organisms as autotrophs or he ...

s. Because Arctic cod have high lipid concentrations relative to their size, predators in the Arctic rely on this species as their main food source. Arctic cod funnel more than 70% of the energy from

to higher

trophic level The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. Within a food web, a food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the ...

s and are the most energy-rich prey species in the Arctic. Arctic cod are locally dominant prey for

Atlantic cod The Atlantic cod (: cod; ''Gadus morhua'') is a fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as '' cod'' or ''codling''.Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic realm, Holarctic. Distribution and habitat It Spaw ...

, and

Greenland halibut The Greenland halibut or Greenland turbot (''Reinhardtius hippoglossoides'') belongs to the family Pleuronectidae (the right-eye flounders), and is the monotypic, only species of the genus ''Reinhardtius''. It is a predatory fish that mostly rang ...

. They are also prey for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s, specifically the

thick-billed murre The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

black guillemot The black guillemot or tystie (''Cepphus grylle'') is a medium-sized seabird of the Alcidae family, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts. It is resident in much of its range, but large populations from the ...

common murre The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a Subarctic, circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming ...

, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, ivory gull, and glaucous gull. Arctic cod are the primary food source for species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Arctic, namely

narwhal The narwhal (''Monodon monoceros'') is a species of toothed whale native to the Arctic. It is the only member of the genus ''Monodon'' and one of two living representatives of the family Monodontidae. The narwhal is a stocky cetacean with a ...

s, belugas, ringed seals, and

harp seal The harp seal (''Pagophilus groenlandicus''), also known as the saddleback seal or Greenland seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus '' Phoca'' with a ...

Diet

Arctic cod are generalists that feed on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

and

krill Krill ''(Euphausiids)'' (: krill) are small and exclusively marine crustaceans of the order (biology), order Euphausiacea, found in all of the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian language, Norwegian word ', meaning "small ...

, more specifically hyperiid amphipods, gammarid amphipods, and

copepod Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

s. Diet varies based on size, region, and locality. Arctic cod larvae feed on eggs, nauplii, and

s. Larger Arctic cod engage in

piscivory A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted repti ...

. When their preferred prey is scarce, Arctic cod are adaptable and will switch to any other available prey. Because Arctic winters have low

primary production In ecology, primary production is the synthesis of organic compounds from atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide. It principally occurs through the process of photosynthesis, which uses light as its source of energy, but it also occurs through ...

rates, Arctic cod accumulate energy reserves rapidly during the late summer to prepare for the

overwintering Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activ ...

period. To withstand short summer growing seasons, Arctic cod juveniles enter winter with higher

lipid Lipids are a broad group of organic compounds which include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing ...

concentrations compared to boreal species.

Reproduction and life stages

Arctic cod have multiple reproductive cycles throughout their lives. Arctic cod are an

r-selected In ecology, selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring. The focus on either an increased quantity of offspring at the expense of reduced individua ...

species, meaning they reach maturity early and produce high numbers of offspring. On average, a female will lay between 9,000 and 21,000 eggs. Spawning occurs between September and April, and peaks between January and February. Spawning locations are not fully known, but spawning is suggested to occur in the

to the southwest of the Svalbard Island chain, and the Kara and

Pechora Pechora (; ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Komi Republic, Russia, located on the Pechora (river), Pechora River, west of and near the northern Ural Mountains. The area of the town is . Population: History Pechor ...

seas. In the

, spawning is suggested to occur near the Franklin and Darney bays. In the Pacific Arctic, spawning is suggested to occur in the northern

, and Kotzebue Sound. Greenlandic Inuit fishers have noted a spawning area near Saattut Island. Boreogadus saida larvae

The development and viability of Arctic cod eggs depend heavily on temperature. Eggs develop normally between -1.5 °C and 3 °C; however, hatching success severely declines above 2 °C. Incubation time decreases as temperatures increase: at 1.5 °C, it will take 79 days for larvae to hatch, but at 3.8 °C, incubation time decreases to 29 days. In the

, Arctic cod hatch under the ice from January to July and remain under the ice until fall. Life Cycle of Boreogadus Saida within a year

Arctic cod larvae can be between 3.5mm and 7mm after hatching; however, in experimental settings, length after hatching decreases when temperatures increase. The larvae have a higher temperature tolerance range than the eggs. Larvae are

euryhaline Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the short-finned molly, '' Poecilia sphenops'', which can live in fresh water, brackish water, or salt water. The green crab ('' Carcinus m ...

, meaning that they can withstand different salinity concentrations. Therefore, they can be found in areas with glacial meltwater, in river mouths, or in ice-covered areas. The larger the larvae are, the higher the chance of survival they have, especially during the transition between yolk feeding to exogenous feeding. Juvenile Arctic cod have a much larger temperature tolerance range than larvae and eggs, tolerating temperatures from 0 °C to 12 °C. Arctic cod exhibit isometric growth, but

allometric Allometry (Ancient Greek "other", "measurement") is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in ''On Growth and Form'' and by Juli ...

fat storage. Juvenile Arctic cod are found in the

pelagic zone The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

of the water column and descend deeper after their first summer. Some juveniles are found within cavities in

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less density, dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world' ...

. It is hypothesized that juveniles that have hatched late remain sympagic to avoid predation from adult Arctic cod and competition from other juvenile Arctic cod. Arctic cod reach sexual maturity at around age 2 to 3. Adult Arctic cod can tolerate temperatures up to 13.5 °C and function best between 3 °C and 10 °C. Adults are found deeper than 100 meters in the water column and are not associated with

Conservation status

In 2021, the Arctic cod was listed as highly threatened by the Norwegian Red List due to the impacts of increasing ocean temperatures on embryo survival.

Fishery

Arctic cod was commercially fished by

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

in the

from 1930 to 2012. The fishery was closed due to declining populations of Arctic cod. Arctic cod are unlikely to become a large-scale fishery in the Arctic due to the remoteness of their habitats and low prices for the species. Arctic cod are not culturally significant to the

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

and are not used in

subsistence fishing Artisanal, subsistence, or traditional fishing consists of various small-scale, low-technology, fishing practices undertaken by individual fishermen (as opposed to commercial fishing). Many of these households are of coastal or island ethnic grou ...

. However, Arctic cod are used by

fishers as bait for

, which is the main fishery in the area. Fishing for Arctic cod is a relatively new practice for the Greenlandic Inuit, as it became more accessible in the 1990s through the availability of sonar echosounders that help detect Arctic cod schools. Before the use of sonar, detection of Arctic cod was possible but less efficient. Therefore, Arctic cod were not fished at larger scales as it was not profitable. Greenlandic Inuit fishers locate schools of Arctic cod by observing the movements of predators in combination with the use of sonar. They catch the cod with mesh nets at depths of 10-50m and up to 200m. Due to the remote fishing areas, fishers typically only go out to fish every 2 to 4 days. Arctic cod is caught as

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

in bottom trawls used for Greenland halibut and northern and striped shrimp fishing. Arctic cod bycatch reaches about 50 tons in each fishery.

Impacts of climate change

Although very populous throughout the

, Arctic cod can still be victim to threats from human actions. Global warming has increased steadily over the past years, and it has caused an increase in ocean temperatures of the Arctic Ocean. Arctic cod live in extremely cold water temperatures, and therefore they have adapted to sub-zero temperatures. Arctic cod populations are predicted to decline due to climate change. The

has low

pelagic fish Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs. ...

biodiversity and is controlled by lower trophic levels, meaning that the area is more sensitive to changes in Arctic cod populations than other Arctic regions. Changes to Arctic cod populations will have cascading effects on populations of

Canadian Arctic species used by

subsistence fishers and hunters. Ocean temperatures in the Arctic are warming and

extent is reducing. Boreal species can withstand these warmer temperatures, extending their ranges northward into habitats historically inhabited by only Arctic species. In the

, boreal capelin,

Atlantic cod The Atlantic cod (: cod; ''Gadus morhua'') is a fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as '' cod'' or ''codling''.haddock The haddock (''Melanogrammus aeglefinus'') is a saltwater ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Gadidae, the true cods. It is the only species in the Monotypy, monotypic genus ''Melanogrammus''. It is found in the North Atlantic Oce ...

have already started moving northwards into Arctic cod dominated areas. Arctic cod now face increased competition and predation from these boreal species. Arctic cod embryos are also sensitive to temperature. Increasing

sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature (or ocean surface temperature) is the ocean temperature, temperature of ocean water close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies in the literature and in practice. It is usually between and below the sea ...

s will decrease the optimal thermal range for embryos. Their larvae must be in 3 °C to hatch normally, and a rise in ocean temperatures can easily lead to phenotypic changes of this cod species. Possible alterations of the species due to increasing ocean temperatures include, smaller size, reduced

fecundity Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the capability to produc ...

, earlier maturation, and increased investment in reproduction at an early age for some. Arctic cod eggs are laid underneath sea ice, and as temperatures increase, sea ice cover will decrease. Arctic cod eggs will be increasingly exposed to

UV radiation Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of t ...

, turbulence and temperature changes, which could affect mortality. Reduced sea ice will also decrease the amount of refuge habitat available for juveniles. Ice dwelling Arctic cod will be affected by the loss of habitat complexity and structures provided by established sea ice. If sea ice forms later in autumn, Arctic cod spawning times may shift, and spawning habitat will decrease. Climate change will also affect the primary production and availability of Arctic cod prey. Climate models predict that ice algae populations will increase because of decreases in ice thickness, allowing more light for primary production. This change will be favorable for young Arctic cod, but inter-annual variability in primary production might lead to different long-term outcomes. Less

will lead to increased anthropogenic activities in the Arctic, especially commercial shipping. Experimental studies have shown that Arctic cod respond to noise pollution from moving shipping vessels by retreating to areas with lower noise levels. Arctic cod also tend to aggregate in the presence of vessel noise. Increased usage of

shipping lanes A sea lane, sea road or shipping lane is a regularly used navigable route for large water vessels (ships) on wide waterways such as oceans and large lakes, and is preferably safe, direct and economic. During the Age of Sail, they were determined ...

through the Arctic will likely fragment habitat for Arctic cod. With shipping comes the possibility of

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

s, which will also affect Arctic cod as they lack glomeruli to filter out toxins from their blood.

References

External links

Arctic cod, ''Boreogadus saida''
University of Guelph * {{Authority control Gadidae Fish of the Arctic Ocean Fish of Europe Taxa named by Ivan Lepyokhin Fish described in 1774 Monotypic ray-finned fish genera