sea ice
Orca vs Narwhal
Orcas are natural predators of narwhals, but they are seasonally kept at bay by Arctic sea ice. As the Arctic becomes increasingly ice-free, killer whales are arriving earlier and hanging out longer in narwhal habitat. How do narwhals fare? Read more to find out!
Atlantic confirmed as accomplice in Arctic sea ice loss
A team of scientist gathered new evidence from the Arctic Ocean, revealing a new suspect responsible for rapidly melting Arctic sea ice.
Throwing Babies out with the Sea Ice: Ringed Seals Response to Ice Decline
As the Earth warms, sea ice declines. What happens to those animals who rely on the ice? Today’s oceanbites looks at one animal, the ringed seal, and how it may be affected by climate change!
The Meltdown: Protists in the time of disappearing Sea Ice in the Arctic Ocean
Sea ice levels in the Arctic Ocean safeguard thousands of marine biosystems. Protists are little known micro-organisms that play a key role in maintaining a balanced oceanic ecosystem. Read more to see how climate change is affected sea ice-levels, and what that means for our protist comrades.
Sub sea ice technology aims to expand Arctic plankton surveys
A German research team tested out three devices for studying plankton in Arctic sea ice. These new methods might allow scientists to expand Arctic primary production studies and yield new insight into these important, understudied ecosystems.
Pole wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Sea Ice
In the sea ice battle between the North Pole and the South Pole, there is no winner in 2016, as sea ice cover is plummeting at both poles.
Positive real estate outlook for Antarctic krill
An Australian research team predict future sea-ice habitats for Antarctic krill larvae, and are surprised to find more suitable ice habitats in the future, despite shrinking sea-ice cover.
Why the Southern Ocean is getting less salty
The Southern Ocean has been getting less salty for decades, and scientists have finally proved that sea-ice is responsible for the extra fresh water in the ocean.
Looking to the tropics to explain Antarctica’s expanding ice
Scientists confirm an surprising explanation for Antarctica’s expanding sea ice in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
If You Must, Adjust? Polar Bears Leaving Sea Ice in the Arctic
Everyone knows that polar bears have become the poster children for species threatened by climate change. And it’s for good reason that they are. Polar bears rely on sea ice for access to prey, finding mates, and creating dens. The persistence of the species depends on the state of sea-ice and more generally a healthy marine ecosystem in the Arctic. Unfortunately, the volume and extent of sea ice have been decreasing by 28% and 14% per decade. Is there a way for polar bears to adapt to the changing sea ice coverage in this sensitive habitat?
Iceberg Buffet: How giant icebergs bring food to plankton
While icebergs are calving from Antarctic glaciers at alarming rates, they may provide a negative feedback for the carbon cycle. Giant icebergs bring large amounts of iron to iron-poor areas of the Southern Ocean, stimulating primary productivity and boosting carbon sequestration.
Plankton fill up ice-free summer homes
Source: Li, Y., R. Ji, S. Jenouvrier, M. Jin, and J. Stroeve (2016), Synchronicity between ice retreat and phytoplankton bloom in circum-Antarctic polynyas, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 2086–2093, doi:10.1002/2016GL067937. Antarctic coasts Despite the dark winters and freezing cold conditions, the coastline of Antarctica is a hotspot for growth of phytoplankton, the tiny, photosynthesizing organisms that […]
Arctic could become more biologically productive as ice melts
As Arctic sea-ice melts away, organisms will be exposed to more light and, potentially, more nutrients. Recent model work suggests that this combination will result in a more biologically active Arctic. But the net result might not be as positive as you think.
One person’s noise, is another person’s data
Measuring the heat content of deep ocean waters is critical to understanding how our global climate system works. It is also very difficult to do on a large scale. A group at the University of Georgia recently proposed a new technique to take the temperature of the deep ocean using only ambient noise and passive hydrophones.
How thick is polar ice?
Based on a simple theory, the authors of this study are able to make a prediction about the distribution of sea ice thickness that works remarkably well, and provides a novel approach to estimating how much ice the polar ice caps contain.
A Career in Marine Mammal Acoustics and the Arctic
This week, I interviewed Joshua Jones, a Ph.D. student in biological oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The focus of his thesis research is marine mammals in the Arctic, their acoustic behavior and relationships with sea ice, and the effects of human activities on the underwater acoustic environment.
Sea Ice Plays a Key Role in Ocean Circulation
Lower amounts of sea ice in the North Atlantic disrupts the way heat is transferred, a key factor that changes large-scale ocean circulation with major global climate consequences.
Double Whammy: Losing sea ice may be worse than we thought
When Arctic sea ice melts, it warms the local region by decreasing the albedo, or lowering the area’s reflectiveness. This atmospheric warming likely intensifies methane production in Arctic wetlands, which causes more warming and ultimately creates a positive feedback by melting more ice!
We’re In Deep Heat: trouble boils over in West Antarctica
An international team of researchers shows that rising ocean temperatures along West Antarctic ice shelves are linked to rising warm water from the deep ocean, and that the rate of warming is larger than previously thought. With no indication of a slow down in warming, these findings illuminate on new realities of sea level challenges likely to be faced in coming decades.
Sea ice and Albedo: Should We Be Worried?
The glaciers are melting, sea level is rising; you’ve heard it all. But did you know that both of these events are increasing how much solar energy the earth is absorbing? Scientists study 30 years of data from the Arctic Ocean to quantify the role of diminishing sea ice in global warming.
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