'Extreme shifts:' New report details effects of changing Arctic climate
Yesterday
YELLOWKNIFE — A new report details how widespread changes in the Arctic, from warming air temperatures to sea-ice loss, have affected animals, plants and people living there.
'Extreme shifts:' New report details effects of changing Arctic climate© Provided by The Canadian Press
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its latest annual Arctic report card Tuesday, complied by more than 100 experts from 11 countries. It provides an update on vital signs in the region and includes new chapters on precipitation, the impacts of rapid climate change on Indigenous communities and the need for more research on pollinators.
The report reinforces long-term trends but also noted regional differences. Among its major findings were that Arctic surface air temperatures between October 2021 and September 2022 were the sixth warmest on record since 1900, and conditions were wetter than normal, with precipitation increasing significantly since the 1950s. The report also noted lower-than-average sea-ice coverage, increased ocean plankton blooms and the 25th consecutive year of Greenland ice sheet loss.
"Few parts of the world demonstrate such extreme seasonal shifts in temperature, land and ocean cover, ecological processes, and wildlife movement and behaviour as the Arctic," said the report.
"These extreme shifts across the annual cycle are a source of the Arctic region's heightened sensitivity to climate changes and to climate-related disturbances."
Lawrence Mudryk, a scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, was the lead author of the chapter on terrestrial snow cover. He said, overall, the report shows the seasons are shifting in the Arctic and there have been several disturbances due to, or worsened by, climate change, such as storms and extreme weather.
"It sometimes gets a little overwhelming to hear all these reports about bad news and how climate change is causing disruptions and going to lead to bad consequences across the globe," he said. "But I think it's important to also acknowledge that it's something that we can take control of and do something about still."
Mudryk wrote in his chapter that June Arctic snow cover was the second-lowest in the 56-year record in North America and third-lowest in Eurasia because of early snow melt. He said that's part of a long-term trend since at least 2008.
"There's subsequent effects on soil moisture, the timing of vegetation growth and subsequent fire risk, even. It also affects the timing of essentially when winter ends and summer starts," he said. "Also, a big thing is that this snow reflects a lot of sunlight, so it controls the energy that comes in the springtime into the Arctic."
Syd Canning, another scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, contributed to an essay on Arctic pollinators. It highlights a significant knowledge gap on long-term pollinator trends in the Arctic and how they're being affected by rapid climate change.
"Pollinators, I think, more and more are being recognized as being really important in both general ecosystems and in sort of human food supply," Canning said. "In the Arctic, pollinators are really important in creating a good berry supply, which is good for animals, birds, people and the whole Arctic ecosystem."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2022.
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Emily Blake, The Canadian Press
YELLOWKNIFE — A new report details how widespread changes in the Arctic, from warming air temperatures to sea-ice loss, have affected animals, plants and people living there.
'Extreme shifts:' New report details effects of changing Arctic climate© Provided by The Canadian Press
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its latest annual Arctic report card Tuesday, complied by more than 100 experts from 11 countries. It provides an update on vital signs in the region and includes new chapters on precipitation, the impacts of rapid climate change on Indigenous communities and the need for more research on pollinators.
The report reinforces long-term trends but also noted regional differences. Among its major findings were that Arctic surface air temperatures between October 2021 and September 2022 were the sixth warmest on record since 1900, and conditions were wetter than normal, with precipitation increasing significantly since the 1950s. The report also noted lower-than-average sea-ice coverage, increased ocean plankton blooms and the 25th consecutive year of Greenland ice sheet loss.
"Few parts of the world demonstrate such extreme seasonal shifts in temperature, land and ocean cover, ecological processes, and wildlife movement and behaviour as the Arctic," said the report.
"These extreme shifts across the annual cycle are a source of the Arctic region's heightened sensitivity to climate changes and to climate-related disturbances."
Lawrence Mudryk, a scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, was the lead author of the chapter on terrestrial snow cover. He said, overall, the report shows the seasons are shifting in the Arctic and there have been several disturbances due to, or worsened by, climate change, such as storms and extreme weather.
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"It sometimes gets a little overwhelming to hear all these reports about bad news and how climate change is causing disruptions and going to lead to bad consequences across the globe," he said. "But I think it's important to also acknowledge that it's something that we can take control of and do something about still."
Mudryk wrote in his chapter that June Arctic snow cover was the second-lowest in the 56-year record in North America and third-lowest in Eurasia because of early snow melt. He said that's part of a long-term trend since at least 2008.
"There's subsequent effects on soil moisture, the timing of vegetation growth and subsequent fire risk, even. It also affects the timing of essentially when winter ends and summer starts," he said. "Also, a big thing is that this snow reflects a lot of sunlight, so it controls the energy that comes in the springtime into the Arctic."
Syd Canning, another scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, contributed to an essay on Arctic pollinators. It highlights a significant knowledge gap on long-term pollinator trends in the Arctic and how they're being affected by rapid climate change.
"Pollinators, I think, more and more are being recognized as being really important in both general ecosystems and in sort of human food supply," Canning said. "In the Arctic, pollinators are really important in creating a good berry supply, which is good for animals, birds, people and the whole Arctic ecosystem."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2022.
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Emily Blake, The Canadian Press
Yesterday
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dead and dying seabirds collected on the coasts of the northern Bering and southern Chukchi seas over the past six years reveal how the Arctic's fast-changing climate is threatening the ecosystems and people who live there, according to a report released Tuesday by U.S. scientists.
Local communities have reported numerous emaciated bodies of seabirds — including shearwaters, auklets and murres — that usually eat plankton, krill or fish, but appear to have had difficulty finding sufficient food. The hundreds of distressed and dead birds are only a fraction of ones that starved, scientists say.
“Since 2017, we’ve had multi-species seabird die-offs in the Bering Strait region,” said Gay Sheffield, a biologist at University of Alaska Fairbanks, based in Nome, Alaska and a co-author of the report. “The one commonality is emaciation, or starvation.”
The seabirds are struggling because of climate-linked ecosystem shifts — which can affect the supply and the timing of available food — as well as a harmful algal bloom and a viral outbreak in the region, she said.
And their peril jeopardizes the human communities, as well: “Birds are essential to our region — they are nutritionally and economically essential,” said Sheffield.
The data on seabirds is part of an annual report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, called the “Arctic Report Card,” that documents changes in a region warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.
“With climate change, the food chain is changing rapidly,” said Don Lyons, a conservation scientist at the National Audubon Society's Seabird Institute, who was not involved in the report. “Food isn’t predictable in the way it used to be, in terms of where the food is, at different times of the year."
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While seabirds naturally experience some lean years, the report documents a worrying pattern, said Lyons. “It seems like we’ve passed a tipping point — we’ve moved into a new regime where events that we used to think of as rare and unusual are now common and frequent.”
In the past year, Arctic annual surface air temperatures were the sixth warmest since records began in 1900, the report found. And satellite records revealed that for several weeks last summer, large regions near the North Pole were virtually clear of sea ice.
“The sea ice extent was much lower than long-term average,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice expert at the University of Colorado Boulder and a co-author of the report.
“The most notable thing we saw was during the summer, we saw a lot of open-water areas up near the North Pole, which was once very rare,” he said. “Several kilometers with very little or no ice, within a couple hundred kilometers of the North Pole.”
“The changes that are happening in the Arctic are so fast and so profound,” said Peter Marra, a conservation biologist at Georgetown University, who was not involved in the report.
Seabirds are metaphorical canaries in the coal mines, when it comes to showing broader ecosystem changes, Marra said, adding, “We need to do a much better job of monitoring these sentinel populations.”
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Follow Christina Larson on Twitter: @larsonchristina
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Christina Larson, The Associated Press
