3 articles / links to the Arctic

1. Science Nordic      ‘The Arctic Ocean surrounds the North Pole at the top of our planet.

Atlantification of the Arctic ‘Some of the water in the Arctic Ocean comes through the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and some comes from Siberian rivers. But most of it makes its way from the Atlantic Ocean up the Norwegian coast. Half of this water courses past Northern Norway, taking a right into the Barents Sea. The rest continues north to Svalbard, and a large part of this in turn flows eastward toward Siberia. Until recently, Atlantic waters hit a wall here, in the form of ice, and disappeared into the depths. The water sank deeper and deeper as it flowed east. In recent years the ice north of Svalbard has been shrinking. “The ice-free area north of Svalbard has been steadily increasing in size, and the ice-free season is getting longer and longer,” says researcher Arild Sundfjord at the Norwegian Polar Institute, based in Tromsø. “A lot of studies clearly show that the warm Atlantic waters are the driving force behind the sea-ice loss in this area,” he tells forskning.no.

Further east, the ice is also decreasing, but there higher air temperatures have been the main cause – until now.’

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2. The Environmental Audit Committee examines evidence and witnesses for the Committee’s inquiry into the changing Arctic.

3. Underwater robots have uncovered new evidence about life in the Arctic and, for the first time, revealed the moment the region’s marine ecosystem springs into life after the dark winter season. The unique data was gathered by autonomous ocean-going ‘gliders’ and will help marine scientists understand more about the so-called ‘Arctic spring bloom’, which kick-starts the ecosystem and is crucial in providing food for animals in the region. See https://nerc.ukri.org/planetearth/stories/1896/.