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Declining Arctic sea ice is increasing polar bear land use. Polar bears on land are thought to minimize activity to conserve energy. Here, we measure the daily energy expenditure (DEE), diet, behavior, movement, and body composition changes of 20 different polar bears on land over 19–23 days from August to September (2019–2022) in Manitoba, Canada. Polar bears on land exhibited a 5.2-fold range in DEE and 19-fold range in activity, from hibernation-like DEEs to levels approaching active bears on the sea ice, including three individuals that made energetically demanding swims totaling 54–175 km. Bears consumed berries, vegetation, birds, bones, antlers, seal, and beluga. Beyond compensating for elevated DEE, there was little benefit from terrestrial foraging toward prolonging the predicted time to starvation, as 19 of 20 bears lost mass (0.4–1.7 kg•day−1). Although polar bears on land exhibit remarkable behavioral plasticity, our findings reinforce the risk of starvation, particularly in subadults, with forecasted increases in the onshore period.
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This content will become publicly available on March 13, 2026
Prominent Composition-Dependent Dynamics Decoupling in the Choline Chloride-Glycerol Deep Eutectic Solvent System
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) exhibit dynamic heterogeneity, where the intricate and dynamic hydrogen bonding within the DES mediates dynamic spatial variation in the DES local environment. The Type III DES composed of choline chloride and glycerol (ChCl:Gly) exhibits this effect prominently, and we report on the observed local organization and its dependence on system composition using the time-resolved reorientation dynamics of three illustrative chromophores of different polarities: perylene (neutral, nonpolar), oxazine 725 (cation, polar) and rose bengal (dianion, polar). Our findings demonstrate that the environments sensed by all three chromophores are markedly different than that predicted by the bulk viscosity of the DES, and that these local environments exhibit remarkably little change as the mole ratio of the DES constituents is varied. Taken collectively, these data provide clear evidence of short-range organization that bears very little resemblance to the longer-range structural organization that determines DES bulk properties.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2401001
- PAR ID:
- 10577308
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Spectroscopy
- ISSN:
- 0003-7028
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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