Global warming is causing a major shift in the Bering Sea ecosystem.

Decades of climate data have demonstrated conclusively that the Arctic ice sheet is rapidly melting away. Less attention has been paid to the effect global warming will have on neighboring near-Arctic ecosystems, but a new study published in the journal Science reports that these regions are just as endangered.

The study, conducted by a multi-disciplinary group of researchers from the US and Canada, found that the Bering Sea is warming at a rate that's causing major changes in its marine ecosystem, a trend that makes it an excellent model for the rest of the world's waterways.

"Really what we're seeing is a fundamental shift in the food web," said Lee Cooper, a marine biologist at the University of Tennessee . "Probably what's going to happen is that fish and other animals in the southern Bering Sea will be moving north, reproducing and competing with animals that live there now."