Litter Levels in the Depths of the Arctic are On the Rise

Arctic Ocean
The Arctic has a serious litter problem: in just ten years, the concentration of marine litter at a deep-sea station in the Arctic Ocean has risen 20-fold. This was recently reported in

Arctic phytoplankton

Underway spectrophotometry in the Fram Strait (European Arctic Ocean): a highly resolved chlorophyll a data source for complementing satellite ocean color. Optics Express Other references: 1. T.F. Stocker [...] “Amplified Arctic warming by phytoplankton under greenhouse warming,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 112 (19), 5921-5926 (2015). 3. K.R. Arrigo and G.L. van Dijken, “Continued increases in Arctic Ocean primary [...] atmospheric and oceanic DMS levels to particle nucleation events in the Canadian Arctic,” J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 116 (D17), D00S03 (2011). 7. P. Tunved, J. Ström, and R. Krejci, “Arctic aerosol life cycle:

Sea Ice Plays a Pivotal Role in the Arctic Methane Cycle

Nature Scientific Reports
The ice-covered Arctic Ocean is a more important factor concerning the concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere than previously assumed. Experts from the [...] Research (AWI) report on the newly discovered interactions between the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean in a recent online study in the journal Nature’s Scientific Reports.

Annual sea ice minimum in the Arctic

Arctic Ocean
The sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean reached its annual minimum of 4.81 million square kilometres on 12 September 2021. As such, the 2021 Arctic sea-ice minimum comes in at 12th place

Fisheries Agreement for the Central Arctic

We know little about the fish stocks in the central Arctic Ocean, and what we know about the local ecosystem is insufficient to ensure sustainable management. In response, in June 2021 the Agreement to [...] to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean – which includes a moratorium on fishing in the region – entered into force. The European Union and nine other countries signed the

Arctic Species in Climate Change

changed with them. When it comes to surviving in the Arctic, it’s a whole new ball game. Arctic sea ice at sunrise (Photo: Stefan Hendricks) The Arctic Ocean Unlike at the southern tip of the planet, in the [...] continent, only an ocean. These waters, also known as the Arctic Ocean, extend to the northern coasts of Scandinavia, Russia, North America and Greenland. They lie completely within the Arctic Circle and are [...] Pole, the Arctic magnetic pole and the Arctic geomagnetic pole. Measuring 4,000 kilometres long, 2,400 kilometres wide and covering an area of roughly 14 million square kilometres, the Arctic Ocean is the

Polarstern Departs on Arctic Expedition

the Arctic Ocean. The four-week expedition, slated to end on 19 July in Tromsø, Norway, will focus on extended ecological fieldwork at the AWI’s deep-sea observatory Hausgarten and at the FRAM Ocean Observing

More and stronger marine heatwaves in the Arctic – with severe consequences

becoming more frequent and intense. The Arctic Ocean also suffers from this development: The absence of sea ice will lead to more extreme fluctuations in ocean temperatures, with abrupt temperature changes [...] Wegener Institute shows how marine heatwaves will also become much more intense and frequent in the Arctic in the 21st century. With drastic consequences for the ecosystem. The researchers published their

Arctic sea ice shrinks to second-lowest summer extent since the beginning of satellite observation

Arctic Ocean
This summer the sea-ice cover on the Arctic Ocean shrank to the second-smallest extent since the beginning of satellite observation in 1979. By mid-September it covered only 3.8 million [...] formed in Russia’s marginal seas, and soon melted again when the spring came. Secondly, this year the Arctic has seen extremely high air and water temperatures. Accordingly, heat gnawed away at the ice from

Deep insights into the Arctic of tomorrow

frequency over a full annual cycle in the Central Arctic Ocean. They have now published three overview articles on the MOSAiC atmosphere, snow and sea ice, and ocean programs in the journal Elementa, highlighting [...] together. These results present the first complete picture of the climate processes in the central Arctic which is warming more than two times as fast as the rest of the planet - processes which affect weather