As glaciers melt, science seeks data on rising seas

By JUSTIN GILLISNovember 13, 2010 TASIILAQ, Greenland — With a tense pilot gripping the stick, the helicopter hovered above the water, a red speck of machinery lost in a wilderness of rock and ice. To the right, a great fjord stretched toward the sea, choked with icebergs. To the left loomed one of the immense […]

Graph of the Day: Decline in Multi-year Sea Ice in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Between 1979 and 2008, first-year sea ice in the summer has been declining at a rate of 8.7% per decade, whereas the thick multi-year sea ice in the summer is being lost at an average rate of 6.4% per decade and over 20% per decade in some areas of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This decreasing […]

Graph of the Day: Warming and Freshening of the Beaufort Sea in 2008 Compared to the 1970s

There have been significant changes in the water mass characteristics of the Beaufort Sea which may impact species distribution and primary production. The freshwater and heat content of the Beaufort gyre has significantly increased relative to the 1970s. The temperature increase has been related to a twofold increase in the temperature of the Atlantic water […]

Starving Russian bears treat graveyards as ‘giant refrigerators’

A shortage of bears’ traditional food near the Arctic Circle has forced the animals to eat human corpses, say locals By Luke Harding in Moscow, www.guardian.co.ukTuesday 26 October 2010 15.32 BST From a distance it resembled a rather large man in a fur coat, leaning tenderly over the grave of a loved one. But when […]

As Arctic warms, increased shipping likely to accelerate climate change

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2010) — As the ice-capped Arctic Ocean warms, ship traffic will increase at the top of the world. And if the sea ice continues to decline, a new route connecting international trading partners may emerge — but not without significant repercussions to climate, according to a U.S. and Canadian research team that […]

Graph of the Day: Biomass of Pacific Herring in Three Subregions of the Canada North Coast, 1950-2009

Pre-fishery biomass (in 1000s of tonnes) of Pacific herring in three subregions of the North Coast and Hecate Strait ecozone. The top left panel is for the Central Coast, the top right panel for Haida Gwaii, and the lower panel for the Prince Rupert District. The horizontal line represents the minimum spawning stock biomass. 2010 […]

Graph of the Day: Sea Surface Temperature and Salinity on Canada North Coast, 1930s–2000s

Long-term records of sea surface temperature show a period of colder surface waters from the period 1945–1978, switching to a long period of warmer surface waters from 1978–2006. The zooplankton community composition and several fisheries time series (e.g. salmon marine survival and sablefish recruitment) are correlated with large-scale climate signals (i.e. El Niño Southern Oscillation […]

NOAA Video: ‘The Arctic is continuing to move into a new and different climate state’

Return to previous Arctic conditions is unlikely Record temperatures across Canadian Arctic and Greenland, a reduced summer sea ice cover, record snow cover decreases and links to some Northern Hemisphere weather support this conclusion. Arctic Report Card: Update for 2010 Technorati Tags: Arctic,global warming,climate change,habitat loss,ecosystem disruption,sea ice,deglaciation,glacier,fish decline,mammal decline,polar bear

Vanishing world of the last Arctic hunters

By Stephen Leonard12:36 PM Saturday Oct 9, 2010 Melting sea ice threatens the way of life of Greenland’s Inughuit people, who hunt whale and seal by kayak and dog sled. Living in the most northern permanently inhabited settlements in the world, the Inughuit people, or Polar Eskimos as they are often known, have eked out […]

Photo gallery: Arctic sea ice decline, Summer 2010

According to the The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), satellite data taken from September this year indicates that Arctic sea ice is continuing a long-term decline. The report, published this week, shows how sea ice coverage was recorded at a summer low of 1.84 million square miles, indicating a continuing trend of decreasing […]

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