Moreover, when mosquito parasitism is intense, many birds leave the cliffs before they succumb, exposing their eggs to predation by gulls. Simultaneously, because of the earlier disappearance of sea ice in northern Hudson Bay, polar bears have been forced to come ashore earlier and in poorer condition (Stirling et al., 1999, Regehr et al., 2007). This change has led them to exploit unusual food resources, especially birds and their eggs and nestlings (e.g., Rockwell and Gormezano, 2009; Smith et al., 2010; Rockwell et al., 2011).
With this, the authors demonstrate the compounding effects of the biological impacts of climate change.