Photos: Goose habitat in NPR-A

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Black brant geese congregate at the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area to shed their worn-out flight feathers. The geese have altered their distribution on the North Slope to take advantage of new and favorable habitat along the Arctic Ocean shore.

Diminished Arctic sea ice and thawing permafrost, phenomena that reinforce the climate change cycle and perpetuate the region's warming trend, are not bad for all creatures of the north, a new study has found.

On Alaska's North Slope, the changes have proved good for geese, according to a new study by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Alaska and published in the latest issue of Environmental Research Letters.

Brant -- a type of small, dark goose that winters in Baja Mexico and migrates each spring to Alaska -- are thriving on the changing North Slope coastline, the scientists found.

"Essentially, it looks like the brant population has grown both in numbers and in range," said Paul Flint, a USGS wildlife biologist and study co-author.

Read more: Global warming winner? North Slope brant thriving amid changes

Contact Yereth Rosen at yereth@alaskadispatch.com.