A university of alaska fairbanks study has determined that warmer water migrating from the atlantic ocean is a surprisingly powerful contributor to arctic sea ice decline. Comiso,1 ronald kwok,2 seelye martin,3 and arnold l. Sea ice volume is decreasing at a much higher rate than sea ice extent and sea ice. The analysis reveals that the trends and variability in september ice coverage and mean cyclone characteristics are related, and that the. Impact of declining arctic sea ice on winter snowfall jiping liua,b,1, judith a.
Results indicate that the loss of sea ice over the barents sea sicbs in march might have influenced the hot drought events over nec in ja for the period of 19972016. Historical documents reveal arctic sea ice is disappearing at record speed. Extraordinary september arctic sea ice reductions and. Over the past several decades, the arctic has warmed at twice the global rate, with sea ice loss accelerating, especially along the coasts of russia, alaska, and the canadian archipelago. After successive years of melting, the consequences are likely to be felt further afield with scientists suggesting weather patterns in the northern hemisphere may be altered. The rapid decline in arctic sea ice asi extent, area and volume during recent decades. Half of arctic sea ice decline might be caused by nature, not humans a north american study has found that as much as half of the decline in the september arctic sea ice could be due to a natural variability, rather than human interaction. Sea ice extent observed for more than three decades.
The animation below alternates between current sea ice extent in green, and 1971 end of summer extent in white. Sea ice is currently in decline in area, extent, and volume and summertime sea. Impacts of changes in sea ice and other environmental parameters in the arctic final report of the marine mammal commission workshop girdwood, alaska, 1517 february 2000 coconvenors. On september 16, arctic sea ice appeared to have reached its minimum extent for the year of 3.
Sea ice declining sea ice extent has decreased sharply in all seasons, with summer sea ice declining most dramatically beyond the projections of ipcc 2007. Effects of sea ice extent and food availability on spatial and temporal distribution of polar bears during the fall openwater period in the southern beaufort sea. Scientists are getting ready to head out for spring field work on hudson bay as part of the sea ice ecology project. Effects of sea ice extent and food availability on. Greater role for atlantic inflows on seaice loss in the. Nansen and amundsen basins observational system research cruise participants watch arctic sea ice in summer 2015 from a deck on the research vessel akademik tryoshnikov. A new study zeroes in on just how much of the arctic sea ices precipitous decline in recent decades is attributable to manmade global warming and. Influence of sea ice concentration on antarctic minke. While in 2011 the sea ice extent did not break nsidcs 2007 record low, the sea ice area as measured by the microwave radiometer on nasas aqua satellite did drop slightly lower than 2007 levels for about 10 days in early september.
Models project that antarctic sea ice area will decline considerably by the end of this century, but the consequences remain largely unexplored. The arctic is facing a decline in sea ice that might equal the negative record of 2012 data collected by the cryosat2 satellite reveal large amounts of thin ice that are unlikely to survive the. Rapid decline of arctic sea ice a combination of climate change and natural variability. The arctic is facing a decline in sea ice that might equal. Arctic sea ice decline has led to an amplification of surface warming and is projected to continue to decline from anthropogenic forcing, although the exact timing of icefree summers is uncertain owing to large natural variability. The future of shipping along the transpolar sea route pdf. This enables the sea ice extents through 2100 to be calculated as a linear extrapolation. Sea ice reductions affect surface heating patterns and the atmospheric pressure distribution, which may alter midlatitude extreme weather patterns. This sea ice decline has stimulated research into how changes in arctic sea ice could affect other components of the earth system. The authors looked at atmospheric circulation over t.
Effects of sea ice extent and food availability on spatial. The dramatic loss of arctic sea ice with climate change has led to the prediction of a tipping point beyond which ice loss is irreversible and polar bear habitat will be catastrophically lost. Effects of recent decreases in arctic sea ice on an ice. Diminished sea ice has reduced food availability for some populations of polar bears7 and walruses8. Assessing the potential impacts of declining arctic sea. Sea ice and photodegradation of dom 2326 publications journal of geophysical research. In the arctic ocean, dom primarily results from either a in situ biological logvinova et al. The effects of global warming in the arctic, or climate change in the arctic include rising air and. Does ocean coupling matter for the northern extratropical. One consequence has been a rapid decline in arctic sea ice over the past 3 decadesa decline that is projected to continue by stateoftheart models.
Half of arctic sea ice decline might be caused by nature. The arctic is facing a decline in sea ice that might equal the negative record of 2012 by alfred wegener institute mosaic of images of the arctic by modis. The relationships between sea ice extension and trends in. What links here related changes upload file special pages permanent. Ecological consequences of seaice decline eric post,1 uma s. Many stakeholders are therefore interested in how global warming may change the timing and extent of sea ice arcticwide, and for specific regions.
The line that appears within the ice cover represents the m depth contour. East, seattle, wa 98112, usa bwildlife biology program, department of ecosystem and conservation sciences, college of forestry and conservation, university of montana, missoula, mt 59812, usa. Walker9 after a decade with nine of the lowest arctic sea ice minima on record, including the historically low. Arctic sea ice from january 1, 20 to september 10, 2016. The arctic sea ice reaches its lowest levels annually in september. Greenhouse gas mitigation can reduce seaice loss and. Sea ice plays an important role in the global climate system because it influences albedo, heat and gas exchange, freshwater budget, ocean stratification, and deep water mass formation, among other ocean characteristics 1, 2. Ecological consequences of sea ice decline image 8 an arctic fox on the tundra of western greenland.
Don percival applied physics laboratory department of. Effects of recent decreases in arctic sea ice on an iceassociated marine bird george j. The areal extent, concentration and thickness of sea ice in the arctic ocean and adjacent seas have strongly decreased during the recent decades, but cold. The relationships between sea ice extension and trends in sighting parameters of antarctic minke whales based on idcrsower data from cpii to cpiii koji matsuoka, hiroshi kiwada and takashi hakamada the institute of cetacean research, 45, toyomicho, chuoku, tokyo 1040055, japan contact email. Attribution of arctic sea ice decline from 1953 to 2012 to. Section 6 is a critical evaluation of the reliability of the methods applied, followed by discussion and conclusions in sections 7 and 8. Implications of less sea ice on fish production in the. A major uncertainty linked to sea ice decline is to what extent dissolved organic matter dom in underlying ocean waters will be impacted. Impact of declining arctic sea ice on winter snowfall. Our planet is an interconnected system, and the vanishing ice is already having ripple effects down south. In the arctic, sea ice extent has been reduced significantly in the last decades, especially in the summer season. Alysa mccall, our director of conservation outreach and staff scientist, explains. Rising temperatures also affect vegetation and reefbuilding species such as corals and mangroves, which protect coastlines from erosion and sealevel rise. Does ocean coupling matter for the northern extratropical response to projected arctic sea ice loss.
Seaice impact on longterm particle flux in the greenland. Economic losses related to ocean warming are likely to run from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Impacts of changes in sea ice and other environmental. Arctic sea ice declines by twice the size of texas. Arctic seaice decline archived by multicentury annual. Ecological consequences of seaice decline eric post et al.
What are the consequences of arctic sea ice decline. Tomas1, and james screen3 1climate and global dynamics division, national center for atmospheric research, boulder, colorado, usa, 2cooperative institute for research in environmental sciences, university of colorado boulder and noaa earth system research. Ecological consequences of seaice decline this copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. The latest satellite information indicates the september 2004 sea ice extent was. Based on effects of arctic amplification warming and ice loss, a study in 2015.
Sea ice extent observed for more than three decades sea ice in the polar seas is one of the most important climate change indicators. Heres what vanishing sea ice in the arctic means for you the verge. Here, the atmospheric response to future sea ice loss in the antarctic is investigated, and contrasted to. The graph above shows arctic sea ice extent as of june 1, 2015, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years. Multiyear arctic sea ice continues dramatic declines, even if no new record low likely recent projections on the extent of arctic sea ice melt showed, though this years melting would be. Surface freshening in the arctic ocean s eurasian basin. Presently, there is great concern that with ongoing warming, arctic seaice decline is accelerating at an unprecedented pace not seen in at least the past 1,450 y. Variability and trends in sea ice extent and ice production in the ross sea josefino c. Fulton,5 mark hebblewhite,6 jeffrey kerby,1 susan j. If waters get too warm, arctic cod may move out of.
The reversibility of sea ice loss in a stateoftheart climate model pdf. This is the lowest seasonal minimum extent in the satellite record since 1979 and reinforces the longterm downward trend in arctic ice extent. Probability assessments of an icefree arctic san francisco fed. We conclude that the recent decline of arctic sea ice has played a. Arctic sea ice melt, driven by global warming, accelerated.
Sea ice extent has continued to decline during september, reaching below four million square kilometers early in the month. Multiyear arctic sea ice continues dramatic declines. The demise of arctic sea ice since 1971 real climate science. As the amount of sea ice decreases, the arctic regions cooling effect is reduced. In recent decades, sea ice in the arctic ocean has been melting faster than it re freezes in. Total ice concentration on three different dates in the greenland sea and is oddennordbukta region.
An area of continued research will be to monitor how changes in sea ice and water temperatures affect arctic cod habitat in places like the chukchi sea, where sea surface temperatures are increasing at a rate of 0. Record of recent sea ice loss one of the most conspicuous consequences of recent anthropogenic warming has been declining annual minimum extent of arctic sea ice 7. Influence of sea ice concentration on antarctic minke whale abundance estimation in the ross sea k oji m atsu k1,t a ksh i oh m d 1 k eu kimura2 and y s ih ro ok ad 2 1 the institute of cetacean research, 45 toyomicho, chuoku, tokyo 1040055, japan. The proportion of sea ice five years or older has declined dramatically over the recorded time. Attribution of arctic sea ice decline from 1953 to 2012 to in uences from natural, greenhousegas and anthropogenic aerosol forcing by bennit l. Multimedia gallery ecological consequences of seaice. Records show that arctic sea ice is at its lowest point in 1,500 years and continues to melt at an accelerated rate. In 2002, the decline in arctic sea ice during september which traditionally marks the end of the summer melt season was about 15 percent, a record low. Linking changes in nutritional ecology to individual and populationlevel consequences the specific mechanisms by which polar bears will be affected by sea ice loss are not well understood or documented, but they have a substantial impact on shortterm variation in. The steady decline is what global climate models predict for a warming world 2. Druckenmillerc a friends of cooper island, 652 32nd ave. Sea ice and snowmelt over the course of the 2010 drift. In this study, we examine the consequences of a significant change in 2009 in the wind. One of the most conspicuous consequences of recent anthropogenic warming has been declining annual minimum extent of arctic sea ice.
Historical documents reveal arctic sea ice is disappearing. Given the breadth and complexity of asis effects on arctic biota, arctic research. Implications of arctic sea ice decline for the earth. The analysis reveals that the trends and variability in september ice coverage and mean cyclone characteristics are related, and that the strength.
Further analyses reveal that lower sicbs is closely related to thinner snow depth over western eurasia sdwea in april. The progressive decline in sea ice coverage of the arctic ocean during the satellite era, at. Walker9 after a decade with nine of the lowest arctic seaice minima on. Can barents sea ice decline in spring enhance summer hot. Arctic sea ice extent is declining very slowly, and is above the 10 year average. The areal extent, concentration and thickness of sea ice in the arctic ocean and adjacent seas have strongly decreased during the recent decades, but cold, snowrich winters have been common over midlatitude land areas since 2005.
599 27 738 1178 1009 1051 96 1349 1207 1384 1139 662 92 1573 1565 459 823 730 314 866 189 558 1056 330 221 827 1185 690 1442 1455